August, the Molting Moon, went by; the young ones were now three parts grown.  They knew just enough to think themselves wonderfully wise.  When they were small it was necessary to sleep on the ground so their mother could shelter them, but now they were too big to need that, and the mother began to introduce grown-up ways of life.  It was time to roost in the trees.  The young weasels, foxes, skunks, and minks were beginning to run.  The ground grew more dangerous each night, so at sundown Mother Partridge called ‘K-reet’ and flew into a thick, low tree.

The little ones followed, except one, an obstinate little fool who persisted in sleeping on the ground as heretofore.  It was all right that time, but the next night his brothers were awakened by his cries.  There was a slight scuffle, then stillness, broken only by a horrid sound of crunching bones and a smacking of lips.  They peered down into the terrible darkness below, where the glint of two close-set eyes and a peculiar musty smell told them that a mink was the killer of their fool brother.

Six little partridges now sat in a row at night, with their mother in the middle, though it was not unusual for some little one with cold feet to perch on her back.

Their education went on, and about this time they were taught ‘whirring.’  A partridge can rise on the wing silently if it wishes, but whirring is so important at times that all are taught how and when to rise on thundering wings.  Many ends are gained by the whirr.  It warns all other partridges near that danger is at hand, it unnerves the gunner, or it fixes the foe’s attention on the whirrer, while the others sneak off in silence, or by squatting, escape notice.

A partridge adage might well be ‘foes and food for every moon.’  September came, with seeds and grain in place of berries and ant-eggs, and gunners in place of skunks and minks.

The partridges knew well what a fox was, but had scarcely seen a dog.  A fox they knew they could easily baffle by taking to a tree, but when in the Gunner Moon old Cuddy came prowling through the ravine with his bob-tailed yellow cur, the mother spied the dog and cried out Kwit!  Kwit!” (Fly, fly).  Two of the brood thought it a pity their mother should lose her wits so easily over a fox, and were pleased to show their superior nerve by springing into a tree in spite of her earnestly repeated ‘Kwit!  Kwit!’ and her example of speeding away on silent wings.

Meanwhile, the strange bob-tailed fox came under the tree and yapped and yapped at them.  They were much amused at him and at their mother and brothers, so much so that they never noticed a rustling in the bushes till there was a loud Bang! bang! and down fell two bloody, flopping partridges, to be seized and mangled by the yellow cur until the gunner ran from the bushes and rescued the remains.

III