A Score in Family
Interest in the partridge is not yet seasonable, except to those who find the partridge family the most amusing of all broods to watch. The parents are almost proverbially perfect in the protection and service of their young. One small garden, which is now very nearly urban, was entered the other day by a covey of twenty, two old birds and eighteen squeakers, all, of course, of one hatch. The experts at the I.C.I. partridge farm have issued a pamphlet to argue that families of more than a dozen are a mistake ; and doubtless they are right in general (incidentally, a family of exactly twelve long- tailed tits has been seen in Kensington Gardens). However, these eighteen young partridges have flourished, and the proud parents, in keeping with their character, have flown at any animal, including man or woman, who dared to approach too near the brood. And yet, a learned person argued not long since in the public Press, that there was no such thing as unselfishness in the kingdom of the so-called "lower animals." A readiness for self-sacrifice is a common-place among parents, and it is not unknown for a blind mammal to be most carefully protected by a companion.
Previous page
