$2 THE NATURAL HISTORY 
Sometimes they are taken in a net called a - 
tunnel ; they are occafionally driven into it by a 
man covered with the fkin of a cow, and dif- — 
guifed as much as‘poffible like that animal. © ie 
The Grey, or common Partridge, is of a gen- 
tle difpofition ; each family lives together in a 
covey, or little flock, until breeding time. When 
part of a hatch has not fucceeded, or if a covey 
has been in part deftroyed by birds of prey or 
other accidents, feveral of thefe fmaller families 
will join together, and form a Jarger company 
than any fingle family. ‘They delight in corn- 
fields, and feldom take fhelter in the woods un- 
icfs purfued. 
The legs of young Partridges at firft are dh 
low, they next become whitifh, afterwards brown, 
and in Partridges of three or four years old black. 
Their age too may in fome meafure be known by 
the laft feather in the wings, after the firft moulting © 
it is pointed, the year following it becomes round 
ed. Little Partridges feed firft upon ants eags 
and little infects ; it is with fome difficulty that 
they are made to eat grain: they feem to prefer 
lettuce, endive, pimpernel, fowthiftle, croundfel, 
and the points of wheat whilit it is green. — 
‘At the age Of three months the red fkin under 
the eyes begins to appear ; this is a fickly time — 
paket’ with 
