is very lively and expressive; the iris being gen-1 erally follow in their track. They are bold, impuerally brown or yellowish, and the pupil large and dent, and exceedingly capricious; always on the oblong, as in other grazing animals. There are no alert, and remarkably observant of every object sinuses or openings under the orbits of the eyes, as around them; and if that which they see is novel or there are in most of the deer and antelopes, neither dangerous, they instantly put themselves in an attiis there any muzzle, the naked part being confined tude of attack. They are among the most sureto a small space between the nostrils: the ears are footed of animals, and can pass along ledges of rocks narrow and rather rounded at the tips; the tail is of very narrow dimensions, upon the brink of the short, usually naked on the under side, and frequently most frightful precipices. If two of them meet in carried erect. In almost all the species the males any such situation as that now noticed, where there have a long beard; and even in such as have the is no room for either of them to turn, the one crouches body covered with comparatively short hair, the hair down and allows the other to leap over it, after on the throat and dewlap is long. The hair of goats which it rises again, and both pursue their journey is not coarse, but it is very strong, smooth, and with perfect safety. Bingley mentions a case of straight in the staple; and in almost all the species two goats meeting on the Torus, or projecting round there is a fine woolly down among the roots of the moulding of the ramparts at the citadel of Plymouth, longer hair. This down, where it is in considera- where the footing was very narrow, and the rampart ble quantity, is of great value in the arts; and indeed overhanging the sea; but the one contrived to crouch the whole covering of the goat is remarkable for its down, and allow the other to leap over it so that durability. The legs of goats are much stouter in both pursued their dangerous journey in perfect proportion than those of the antelopes. They are safety, and in the presence of numerous spectators. furnished with a callous appendage at the joint, and All their senses are very keen; they see to a the hoofs are high and solid. The females have great distance, and notice everything around them; two mammæ forming an udder in the groin; they go and their sense of smelling, though themselves smell five months with young; the female is capable of strongly, is very acute. In feeding they are very propagating at seven months old; and the birth indiscriminate; and many plants which are not only usually consists of two kids, which are perhaps the shunned by other ruminating animals, but act as most sportive of all young animals. The male does poison to them, are not only eaten with impunity but not come to perfect maturity until the expiring of a relished by goats. There have been instances in year; and then a single male is sufficient for a flock which tame goats have chewed tobacco; and in the of a hundred females. At five or six, the male is wild state they eat the most bitter and narcotick reckoned old; but the full life of the goat may be plants, such as euphorbium, hemlock, henbane, and estimated at about fifteen years. At all times, but even digitalis, without suffering any injury. Few more especially during the rutting season, he-goats plants are more disrelished by cattle than the comemit a peculiar smell, to which the name of hircine mon ragweed, and therefore the pastures on those has been given, from the word hircus, a he-goat. In lands in upland and humid situations, are very much the rutting season the males follow the habit of all infested by it; but goats clear it off, if allowed to gregarious animals, in battling keenly with each browse the plants before they come into flower. other for the possession of the females; and though There are many of the composite which are the pests their mode of conducting those battles of gallantry of our pastures, and which are, generally speaking, is very different from that either of bulls or of rams, it is still very characteristick as well as picturesque. Bulls attempt to gore and toss each other with their horns; and rams, retreating to a considerable distance from each other, return with so much acquired velocity, as sometimes mutually to fracture the sculls of each other, and when they miss their aim, they tumble and sometimes break their legs; goats, on the other hand, rise up in their combats, and throw their whole weight in a curious oblique motion, which is very effective, so much so, indeed, that a goat is more shunned by dogs and other carnivorous animals than the larger ruminantia. It gives its stroke very suddenly, and as it generally delivers its whole weight with great impetus against the ribs of the enemy, its attack is equally severe and difficult to be guarded against. The tendency of the whole race is to climb to as high situations as they can. In a state of nature the whole of them inhabit the tops of the mountains, probably nearer the line of perpetual snow than any other mammalia of equal size. In a domestick state they also seek cliffy places, from which they do not descend unless for the purpose of drinking; and where goats are kept they add not a little to the picturesque effect of mountain scenery. When mixed with sheep on the same pastures, they invariably take the lead, and their more timid companions gen biennials, making roots the one year, and bearing flowers the next, which might probably be cleared off, by pasturing with goats at proper times. The alternation with each other of animals, one set of which can eat the plants that are disliked by another, is an important point in the economy of our grazing districts, though it does not appear to have received that attention to which it is entitled. Indeed, those who devote their attention to the rearing of domestick animals for profitable purposes, in general so confine themselves, both in theory and practice, to one species, that they neglect all others, and thereby seriously injure, and sometimes actually ruin the pasture grounds. It will be readily understood, that if a pasture land abounds in a plant which is disliked by any kind of grazing animal, that plant will be left, while those upon which the animal feeds are eaten up; and by this means the plant which is injurious to the pasture will seed and multiply, and in time overrun the ground, and choke and extirpate those other plants which are accounted more valuable. There is not the least doubt that in this way many of the upland districts of the British islands have been converted from grass land to heath, and thereafter followed the natural progress from heath to peat, in consequence of having been grazed by black cattle only. In those districts where sheepgrazing has been introduced, which, in the north at least, is a much more recent species of grazing, the quantity of heath has diminished; though in the more steep and wild places the sheep tracks have opened the surface to the rains, so that entire mountain sides have been swept down to the naked rock, and ruined by the debris and rubbish the meadows at their bases. In situations where there is also a sprinkling of goats, it does not appear, at least so far as our observation has gone, that either of these consequences takes place, at least anything like so speedily; hence the admixture of cattle, sheep, and goats, and the judicious adaptation of the numbers of each to the natures of the pastures, is a point well worthy the utmost attention of those who are proprietors of our mountainous districts, or otherwise take an interest in it. If the habits and feeding of useful animals, and the nature of soils and climates, and the progressive history of their vegetation were a little more studied, it would be all the better for the country; for there is no doubt that this species of ignorance does more real injury than is generally believed. If plantations are an object, as they always are near the sea, for the sake of the bark and charcoal which can be afforded by judicious coppice cultivation, goats cannot be introduced without occasioning mischief, in consequence of the proneness which they have to bark the trees in winter, and gnaw the buds and twigs in the spring. All the species of wild goats, which are not indeed very numerous, are remarkable for their activity among their native rocks; and though in forward running they are not probably equal to many of the antelopes, their single bounds, and the situa tions in which they take them, are superiour to those of any other animals. If there is the least hold for their feet, so that they can get a point of rest for an instant, and thereby acquire an impetus, they will ascend a perpendicular wall or precipice fifteen feet in height; and it is astonishing how little hold will sustain them, and how speedily they will renew their leaps. It is generally said, and the saying is probable, that when they do lose their balance, and fall from the precipices, they contrive to fall upon their horns, in the same manner as a cat alights on its feet, and that they thus can tumble from a height of fifty or even a hundred feet without sustaining the slightest injury. Those which are found in the more elevated and rocky mountains, are represented as being able to ascend a considerable way between the perpendicular sides of a ravine. How they do this, and contrive to bound from side to side of the chasm, is not easily explained upon any principle of common animal mechanicks; but it has been so frequently stated by authors whose descriptions are generally to be credited, that it cannot well be denied. How far the elasticity of the horns may aid them in this singular species of ascent, is not a matter that has been determined, or one which is easy to determine; but still the goat does ascend by leaping against one of the opposing faces of the rock, and alighting on the opposite face; so that the whole of the motion bears some analogy to an oblique billiard ball striking alternately on opposite cushions of a table, though the horns strike the one side and the feet the other. How these act so as to give an upward motion to the animal is a point not easily determined; but it is one which is worthy of study. The boldness, dexterity, and hardihood of the| The male of the common partridge, when full goat among rocks, render the wild goat one of the grown and in good condition, weighs about fifteen or most hazardous species of game for the mountain sixteen ounces, and the female about two ounces hunters. They are exceedingly vigilant; and when less; the length of the entire bird thirteen inches, alarmed or rendered suspicious, they can escape up-breadth twenty; the eyes are hazel; the bill in the ward, and they are said sometimes to throw them- young is brown, in the old bluish white; the legs selves down upon the hunters, and tumble them upon the rocks, in which case the hunter is dashed to pieces, while the mountain goat falls on its horns, and escapes unhurt. Goats utter various sounds according to their age, and the feeling with which they are impressed at the time. The kids or young ones bleat, and their bleating, though sharp, is not unpleasant. When the older ones are alarmed, they utter a peculiar sort of whistle; and their general sound when preparing to repel danger is an indescribable sort of spluttering. In those wild places the females are strongly attached to their young ones; and a she-goat of the mountain-tops can defend her kids from the wolf and the eagle with equal success. PARTRIDGE.-(Perdix.) THE characters of this genus are, the bill short, stout, compressed, and naked at the base; the upper mandible arched, convex, and much curved toward the tip; the nostrils at the base of the bill lateral, and half covered by an arched membrane; the three front toes united by membranes as far as the first articulation; the tail, consisting of fourteen or eighteen feathers, is short, rounded at the extremity, and drooping downward; and the wings are also short, rounded, and hollow. Partridges are stationary in some countries, and shift their abodes with the seasons in others. They are very numerous in warm and temperate regions of the globe, living in pairs, and steady in their family attachments. The greatest number reside in the fields and in open tracts of country, with the exception of some, which prefer the outskirts of woods in the neighbourhood of water. Their food consists of grain, seeds, bulbous plants, insects, and worms. They run more frequently than fly, get up from the ground with some difficulty, and make a whirring noise when on the wing. They have numerous broods generally; and the young, as soon as they are hatched, run about-indeed, they may be often seen running with a portion of the shell adhering to their bodies. The species and varieties of partridges are very numerous, so that we can afford room to notice only a few of the leading ones. The partridges of the eastern continent admit of subdivision into two sections:-the true partridges, which have the bill and tail short, and no produced spurs on the tarsi; and the francolins, which have the bill and tail produced, and spurs on the tarsi. The former are strictly monogamous, and fight few battles of more gallantry, though they fight stoutly for their pastures; but the second are very pugnacious in some of the species. As a whole race they inhabit warmer latitudes than the true partridges. We shall notice them in order, and first the true partridges. Besides these there is a third division, the Colins, or partridge of North America, which are perchers, having the bill short and stout, and some of them are migratory. also are yellowish when young, and, as they increase in age, turn to a dark bluish white. The age of partridges is discovered by the bill and legs; and another method is, from the appearance of the last feather of the wing, which is pointed after the first moult, but in the following year is quite round. The general colour of the plumage is brown ash, elegantly mixed with black, and each feather is streaked down the middle with buff-colour; the chin, cheeks, and forehead, are tawny, and palest in the females. Under each eye there is a spot, with small warty excrescences, and above and behind the eye, toward the ear, is a naked skin of a bright scarlet, which is not very conspicuous, except in old birds; the legs of the male are furnished with a blunt spur or knob behind, and the breast with a crescent of a deep chestnut colour, which takes place the beginning of October; this mark the female wants, and her feathers are in general not so distinct and bright. It is said the partridge, if unmolested, lives from fifteen to seventeen years; others dispute this computation, and maintain that they live seven years, and give over laying in the sixth, and are at their full vigour when two years old. Partridges pair about the third week in February, and sometimes after being paired, if the weather be extremely severe, they all gather together, and again form the covey. They begin to lay about six weeks after being paired. According to Ray there are one third more male than female partridges hatched; and it is well known the old cocks will drive the young cocks off the ground, and afterward frequently fight until they kill each other. In this respect partridges differ from pheasants; they will have a certain range to themselves, whilst pheasants will hatch and live quietly with their broods close together. When too many birds are left, these contentions are sure to happen; and the consequence is a scanty produce, for the female is so pursued, that she drops her eggs in various places, forming no nest, and perhaps never laying two eggs in the same spot. The amorous nature of partridges has given rise to very strange accounts; we are unprepared to controvert, and less inclined to investigate, this peculiar propensity ascribed to them. The female lays her eggs on the ground, scraping together a few bents and decayed leaves, which are strewed roughly in the hollow made by an ox or horse's foot. This nest is formed upon hedge-banks, in corn or grass, but more particularly in clover fields; and the number of eggs laid are from fifteen to twenty-five, of a greenishgray colour: the number of eggs is much reduced when the bird is either very young or very old, and also when the first eggs have been destroyed and a second hatch produced. There have, however, been instances of amazing fecundity in the partridge. On a farm occupied by Mr. Pratt, near Ferling, England, in the year 1793, a partridge-nest was found in a fallow field with thirty-three eggs; twenty-three of the eggs were hatched, and the birds went off; four more had live birds in them: the number of the eggs was ascertained before hatching, to decide a bet laid should the pointer come too near, or unfortunately run in upon them, there are few who are ignorant of the confusion which ensues. The male first gives the signal of alarm, by a peculiar distressful cry, throwing himself at the same moment more immediately in the way of danger, in order to mislead the enemy; he flies, or rather runs along the ground, hanging his wings, and exhibiting every symptom of debility, whereby the dog is decoyed, by a too eager expectation of an easy prey, to run farther from the covey. The female flies off in a contrary direction, and to a greater distance, but soon after secretly returning, she finds her scattered brood closely squatted among the grass; and, hastily collecting, she leads them from the danger, before the dog has had time to return from his pursuit. Mr. Markwick says he has seen, when a kite has been hovering over a covey of young partridges, the old birds fly up at the kite, screaming, and fighting with all their might to preserve their brood. It is no uncommon thing to introduce partridges' eggs under the common hen; when she has set the regular time, if the young do not appear, the feathers are glued to the inner surface of the shell, from being exposed to too great heat from the hen. To remedy this, dip the eggs five or six minutes in water, and the moisture will soak through the shell and loosen the feathers; and this kind of bathing may also, per by a person who refused to credit so unusual a production; the female covered all the eggs; seven of which in the centre were piled in a curious manner. Upon Sion-hall farm, in Essex, belonging to Colonel Hawke, in 1788, the following extraordinary incident of a partridge depositing her eggs, was known to many persons:-This bird chose the top of an oak pollard to make her nest; and this tree, too, had one end of the bars of a stile, where there was a footpath, fastened into it; and by the passengers going over the stile, before she sat close, she was disturbed and first discovered. The farmer, whose name was Bell, apprized us of the circumstance, which he laughed at, as being the report of his workmen, and saying that it was only a wood-pigeon they had mistaken for a partridge. But Master Bell, who had killed some hundreds of partridges, so positively affirmed his having beheld the bird upon the nest on the tree, and also, at another time, having told the eggs to the number of sixteen, that he was persuaded to ride to the spot, where the partridge was seen sitting. In a few days she hatched the sixteen eggs, and her brood scrambling down the short and rough boughs which grew out all around from the trunk of the tree, reached the ground in safety. The female sits three weeks, and during that period undergoes a considerable moult, for the feathers of the belly drop the great hatch is about the first ten days in June; the earliest birds begin to fly towards the lat-haps, refresh the young bird, and give it additional ter end of that month. strength to break its prison. It is said that the partridge, bred under a hen, retains through life the habit of calling when it hears the clucking of hens. The first food for the young partridges should be the eggs of the small ant; afterward fresh curds, mixed with lettuce, chickweed, or groundsel. It will be sometime before they can eat grain readily. Partridges are not every year equally plentiful: in general, when the season is dry during May and June, the birds are numerous; on the contrary, heavy and frequent rains during the time of laying and incubation, may chill or drown the eggs. If the weather is wet when the young first leave the shell, the cold benumbs the little strength they then pos- Even when fostered by hand, the partridge seldom sess in their legs, and they die while the mother is forgets its wild origin, and, at its full growth, soon leading them in search of food to sustain life. At acquires a habit of estranging itself from the house, this time too much drought is likewise unfavourable; however intimately it may have been connected with the ground cracks from the heat, and into these crev- the place and its inhabitants, in the early stages of ices they fall and inevitably perish; and this latter its existence. This species of partridge is very genspreads a more universal destruction than the former, erally distributed over the eastern continent, most especially in clayey lands. The old partridge has abundantly in the temperate regions, though it also other dangers to encounter from weasels, stoats, &c., occurs in high latitudes, and, seasonably at least, in crows, magpies, curs, and shepherds' dogs; all of hot countries, such as Egypt, and the coast of Barwhich suck the eggs, not to mention the shepherds bary. In a bird which is so generally distributed, and farmers themselves, who, in some countries, considerable varieties of colour may be expected, very kindly destroy them. It is not, under all these and two of these varieties have sometimes been dedisadvantages, an unfair calculation to suppose that scribed as separate species: these are the Damasone half of the broods in any one year are never cus partridge, which is only about half the size of reared. When the eggs are destroyed in any of the the common variety, pale-ash colour above, variegaabove ways, the partridges frequently lay again, and ted with black and red, and yellowish white on the the produce of these second hatchings constitute under side; and the hill partridge, which is smaller those small birds that are not perfectly feathered in than the common variety, and darker in the colour. the tail until the beginning of October, and always These and some others can be regarded as little else continue a puny, sickly race, that seldom outlive the than climatal varieties, and there are instances also rigours of the winter. The affection for its young, of albinoes, or specimens nearly or altogether white. which the partridge shows, is peculiarly strong and lively; by her mate she is greatly aided in the care of rearing them; together they lead them out, call, and point out to them their proper food, and assist them in finding it, by scratching the ground with their feet: they frequently sit close to each other, covering the young with their wings like the hen; in this situation they are not casily sprung, nor will the sportsman who is attentive to the preservation of his game, disturb a scene so interesting; but VOL. IV.-3 The FRANCOLINS need not detain us long. Their enlarged bills, longer tails, and spurs on the tarsi distinguish them from the true partridges; and and it is generally these birds, and not the real partridges, which are engaged in pitched battles for gambling purposes. One species at least inhabits the south of Europe, and indeed the name francolia is nothing else than the Italian francolino, which means "free," and as applied to birds, it really means such as are not free, at least to all the peo 1. Clapperton's Francolin-Francolinus Clappertoni; 2. Rüppell's Francolin-Francolinus Rüppellii; 3. Erckel's FrancolinFrancolinus Erckleii; 4. Common Partridge--Perdix cinerea. ple, but such as are prized as game, and protected | withered stalks and grass. They are very prolifick, accordingly. It is not, however, in the differences of structure to which we have alluded that the chief distinctions between the partridges and the francolins consist. The partridges are birds of the open champaigns, reposing at night on the ground. The francolins prefer the shade of woods, and perch for the night in trees. They also feed more upon animal matters, such as mollusca and worms, and they resort more to marshy places, and find part at least of their food by searching the mud of these with their bills. The difference in their structure accords with their habits. The enlarged tail enables them to rise with more facility than the partridges; and the more powerful bill enables them to poke in the mud and mire. Their voices are also much louder and harsher than those of the partridges; and they utter loud calls in the morning when they leave their perches, and in the evening when they return to them. But though they perch on trees for the night, the females nestle upon the ground, and rear their young very much after the manner of partridges, at least until they are so far fledged as to be able to fly to a perch. The COLINS, or partridges of North America, differ in many of their habits, both from the partridges and the francolins of the eastern continent, or rather they combine many of the habits of both. They inhabit indiscriminately the open places and the woods, and sometimes parks, and at other times seek a sequestered repose upon the ground. The nest is, accordingly, sometimes in a bush, and sometimes in a tuft in the open prairie; but it is always formed of the same materials, and put together in the same rude manner. It is compose of a few sticks, lined with the eggs in a single hatch being rarely fewer than fifteen, and often as many as five-and-twenty. When one brood have broken the shell, the male, at least in some of the species, takes the rearing of them, while the female proceeds with another hatch. All the hatches of the season are united into one flock, but as the birds are sought after with much avidity, both by the settlers and by the aboriginal inhabitants of the forests, and as they have besides many enemies, their numbers are very much thinned every season, before the time of reproduction again comes round. These birds, many of which are recent additions to natural history, and of most of which the history is very imperfect, have been indiscriminately called partridges and quails. They have many points of resemblance to both; but in strict propriety they belong to neither; and thus they have been formed into a separate genus, under the name Ortyr. Some species have been mentioned as inhabiting South America, at least as far to the southward as Guiana, and the valley of the river Amazon; but there seems to be some little doubt on the subject. It may, how ever, be true that they pass gradually from the more typical ones of the north to the timanous of the south; but we are not yet in possession of any connected chain of data that will bear out such a conclusion. HEATH. HEATH is the common name of that beautiful family of alpine plants called by botanists Erica, They inhabit the northern, and a few of the loftiest |