Rearing Birds One might suppose that birds hid a knowledge
of the arrival of the close season. At any rate a pair of partridges played happily about my rose garden on the first safe day. They had paired, but kept to the adjacent fields, more than a fortnight earlier in tune with the. spring-like weather. I have known very early pairs return to the formation of the covey on the coming of very hard weather, as if there were warmth in numbers ; but these pairs will probably " staY--put." No bird is more uxorious or, indeed, more fond and protective of its offspring, and happily like a good many others grows fonder of gardens towards nesting time. It is well worth while considering the partridge, as well as the tit and blackbird, in putting out food. Almost all birds, in my experience, need more food when spring begins to replace winter than at any other season. They are hungrier, but food is rather less plentiful, even for the partridge which almost equals the goose in its ability to live on green food, even to the tips of the leaves of buttercups, that poisonous family. Feeding the birds is a more imperative duty now than at any other time, and they all desire some form of fattiness.
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