22 SEPTEMBER 1928, Page 13

A PLUCKY PARTRIDGE.

Even in the most drastic farm operations we see an occa- sional example of the courage of birds in clinging to their nest. This year in my neighbourhood the driver of a cutter saw a sitting partridge just in time to lift the cutting blade which missed the head of the bird by inches.. She did not budge then or later ; and finally hatched out nine chicks in that little tuft of rough grass. The same workman a year earlier hit a hen pheasant with the point of his scythe and wounded her severely, but she returned to her eggs and successfully brought off her brood.