. Birds of the wave and woodland. Illustrated by Charles Whymper and others . upon whom it makesregular forays, and who, strange to say, seem to submit tothis assertion of manorial rights with the minimum of protestand disturbance—very much like the unfortunate villeinsand vassals in the good old feudal days of baronialEngland. Ah, init-hroivn Partridges! Ah, brilliant Pheasants ! Byron. September is, of course, by long prescription, the partridgesmonth, and October the pheasants, than which there are notwo birds probably in all England that invest a country scenewith a more immediate Interest
. Birds of the wave and woodland. Illustrated by Charles Whymper and others . upon whom it makesregular forays, and who, strange to say, seem to submit tothis assertion of manorial rights with the minimum of protestand disturbance—very much like the unfortunate villeinsand vassals in the good old feudal days of baronialEngland. Ah, init-hroivn Partridges! Ah, brilliant Pheasants ! Byron. September is, of course, by long prescription, the partridgesmonth, and October the pheasants, than which there are notwo birds probably in all England that invest a country scenewith a more immediate Interest and charm. In a certainfield through which I used often to pass in the evening, thereused to be near a gate a large square patch of ground uponwhich the farmer had once stacked manure, and the haynever grew on it, only a wonderful crop of chickweed andplantain, with fumitory and other weeds. And everyevening, if I walked carefully, I could surprise the partridgeswith their young brood busy after food on this open the fancy took them, they would be alarmed by my. BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 79 approach, vanishing- through the surrounding wall of tallmeadow-grass in a twinkling, or they would cluck and cranetheir necks to look at me, and then go on feeding—allexcept the cock-bird, who invariably fled, and from hishiding-place would keep on making nervous remarks to hiswife, who kept as regularly reassuring him with little com-fortable clucks that all was risfht. A little scattered chicken-food brought them very soon through the gate into thegarden, and from the garden on to the terrace, where theycame at last to feed as regularly and happily as ordinarypigeons. But when September came, and the guns werebusy in the farmers fields that lay outside their garden-asylum,the covey gradually dwindled away till, out of the nine, onlyfour survived the season. The pheasants, too, were freeof the grounds, and they were always in evidence. The carna-tions had all to be fenced
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1894
