198 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

the caller, and is very applicable to this tribe of birds, which
are noted for their loud call. .

«Whenever a dog or other formidable animal approaches
the nest of a partridge, the hen practises every art to allure
him from the site. She keeps at a little distance before him,
feigning to be incapable of flight, and just hopping up, and
falling down before him, but never advaneing to such a
distance as to discourage her pursuer. At length, having
sufficiently misled him, she at once takes wing and disap-
pears. The danger being over, and the dog withdrawn,
she returns and finds her scattered brood, who immediately
assemble at her call, and follow her. Corn-fields are the
places that partridges most delight in, expecially while the ~
corn is growing, for that is a safe retreat, where they re-
‘main undisturbed, and under which they usually breed.
They frequent the same fields after the corn is cut down,
but with a different intent; for they then feed on such corn
as has dropped from the ears, and find sufficient shelter
under cover of the stalks*.”

Corunnrx.—The Quail. (Plate XII. Coturniz vulgaris.)

These little birds greatly resemble the partridge, but they
are smaller, the bill more slender, no red mark over the

* Maunder’s Treasury.