QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 311 
wings, as if sorely wounded ; using every artifice she 
is master of to .entice the passenger in pursuit of 
lierself, uttering at the same time certain peculiar notes 
of alarm, well understood by the young, which dive 
separately amongst the grass, and secrete themselves 
till the danger is over ; and the parent, having decoyed 
the pursuer to a safe distance, returns, by a circuitous 
route, to collect and lead them off. This well known 
manoeuvre, which nine times in ten is successful, is 
honourable to the feelings and judgment of the bird, 
but a severe satire on man. The affectionate mother, 
as if sensible of the avaricious cruelty of his nature, 
tempts him with a larger prize, to save her more 
helpless offspring ; and pays him, as avarice and cruelty 
ought always to be paid, with mortification and disap- 
pointment. 
The eggs of the quail have been frequently placed 
under the domestic hen, and hatched and reared with 
equal success as her own ; though, generally speaking, 
the young partridges, being more restless and vagrant, 
often lose themselves, and disappear. The hen ought 
to be a particular good nurse, not at all disposed to 
ramble, in which case they are very easily raised. 
Those that survive, acquire all the familiarity of common 
chickens ; and there is little doubt that, if proper 
measures were taken, and persevered in for a few years, 
they might be completely domesticated. They have 
been often kept during the first season, and through the 
whole of the winter, but have uniformly deserted in 
the spring. Two young partridges that were brought 
up by a hen, when abandoned by her, associated with 
the cows, which they regularly followed to the fields, 
returned with them when they came home in the 
evening, stood by them while they were qiilked, and 
again accompanied them to the pasture. These remained 
during the winter, lodging in the stable, but, as soon as 
spring came, they disappeared. Of this fact, I was 
informed by a very respectable lady, by whom they 
were particularly observed. 
It has been frequently asserted to me, that the quails 
