Partridge

par'trij, a familiar bird of the grouse family. The term is applied also to the quail, but it belongs of right to the ruffed grouse. In the South, the ruffed grouse is called a pheasant; in New England, a partridge. The ruff consists of two tufts of broad, glossy black feathers, one on each side of the neck. The partridge is found in wooded districts from the Mississippi Valley to the mountains of Georgia and northeastward into Canada. In the spring the male mounts a log or stump and drums by striking its sides with its wings. The thumps are deliberate at first, but come faster and faster, ending in a prolonged vibration. This drumming is well described by Chapman: "This loud tattoo begins with the measured thump of the big drum, then gradually changes and dies away in the rumble of the kettledrum. It may be briefly represented thus: Thump--thump--thump--thump, thump; thump, thump-rup, rup rup rup r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r.

The partridge lays from eight to fourteen eggs in a well built nest beneath a bush, or at the foot of a tree. The young follow their mother a few hours after hatching, and are so lively, that "to run like a partridge" has become a proverbial expression. Many a boy walking in the woods has come across a partridge with a broken wing which, however, seemed to mend rapidly, as he chased her, until finally, and to his utter astonishment, she sailed away with perfect ease, while he perhaps lived to learn later in life that he had been deceived by a ruse of the affectionate mother designed to lure him from the vicinity of her covey.

During the summer the partridge feeds her young on insects and grubs. In the autumn the entire family dine on small fruit. In winter, buds and seeds, especially sumach berries and dwarf birch buds, are articles of diet. The toes of the partridge are furnished with horny flanges which, like snowshoes, enable the owner to walk on soft snow. The partridge roosts habitually in evergreen and alder thickets, but, like the prairie hen, is quite capable, in the North at least, of taking refuge over night in a soft snow drift.

The sharp-rayed track of the partridge adds another figure to this fantastic embroidery upon the winter snow, . . . leading you over logs and through brush, alert and expectant, till, suddenly, she bursts up a few yards from you, and goes humming through the trees--the complete triumph of endurance and vigor. Hardy native bird, may your tracks never be fewer, or your visits to the birch-tree less frequent!--Burroughs.