Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-03-02

There is no kinder mother in the world than
the partridge, and none whose love for its off
spring is put to greater tests Truly these ger!
tie birds have many enemies. They make their
nests on the ground, In the wheat fields or hav
helds, and they have to guard against dogs and
hawks, and cats aud foxes, but most of all
against men; for, though partridge shooting
does not begin till the first of September, teii
nests are often destroyed before that time by the
haymakers or the reapeIs, whose long scytheS
NOV down the sheltering grass in which they
have fancled themselves safe, and sometimes
Kill the poor mother bird while sitting on her
nest But the partridge is such devoted moth
er that she will often remain on her nest and die
Iather than leave 1t,
One of these birds has been known to have
been found sitting upon its eggs, and being
taken by a laborer, TO have made no attempt to
escape, allowing herself to be carried away with
her RS rather than leave them.
Alter the eggs are Matched, the mother par
fridge has greater trouble in keeping her little
oIes safe. The carton crow sometimes tries to
seize one for his dinner. One day a person
walking through a field saw two partridges
lighting with crow. The battle was so furious
that none of the birds noticed the man till he
had time TO come up and seize the crow, and so
let the partridges gain the day. When he looked
among the long grass near which the battle had
been fought he saw the young partridges hidden
there.
Sometimes the enemy of the partridge is so
strong that they cannot fight with him,
and then they try many curious plans to
draw MN away from their nest. A gentleman
one day saw partridge come out of ditch and
run along Shvering with her wings as if she
were wounded. While he was watching her, a
boy who was following him saw the little par
tridgcs, which were too young to tly, running
for shelter into an old foX-hole, while the mother
pretended to be wounded, and ran slowly before
the young gentleman to lead him away from
where the young ones were hid.
farmer di covered partridge sitting upon
its eggs in grass field. The bird allowed him
to pass his hand down its back without moving
or showing any Kind of fear; but if he attempt.
ed 10 touch tue eggs the poor bird Immediately
pecked at his hand.
A gentleman was one day riding over his
farm while the plowmen were blowing the fields.
He saw partridge slip gently off her nest, so
near the foot OF one of his pillow horses that he
thought the eggs must be crushed. This, how
ever, was NOT the case. The nest had ESCAPED
for that time but it was PLAIN that the next time
the plow passed, it would bury nest and eggs in
the iurrow. The gentleman had the curiosity to
come back to see what would happen and when
he returned with the pillow, the nest was there,
but both birds and eggs were zone. In about
twenty minutes, the time which hud b. en- taken
Tor the round of p.owin@, the parent birds had
removed fwenty-one er9s from the nest to the
hedge, distance OF 10 ty yards.
A gentleman who was training young point
er was crossing a field, when the dog ran on a
OroCd OF very small partridges. The old bird
cred, tutered, and ran tumbling along lust be-
fore the dogs nose. till she had drawn him to a
considerable distance, when she took wing and
few still further off, but not out of the field.
"On this saws the gentleman, "the dog re-
turned to me, near which place the young ONES
lay concealed in the grass, which the old bird
no sooner perceived than she flew back again to
us, settled Just before the do.'s nose again, and
by rolling and tumbling about drew his attcn-
ton from her young, and thus preserved her
brood a second time.