After some time the new pair were both
destroyed, and the annoyance ceased.
Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal for the
increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after pairing-
time he always shot the cock-bird of every couple of partridges
upon his grounds; supposing that the rivalry of many males
interrupted the breed: he used to say, that, though he had widowed
the same hen several times, yet he found she was still provided
with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away from her usual
haunt.
Again; I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who has often
told me that soon after harvest he has frequently taken small
coveys of partridges, consisting of cock-birds alone; these he
pleasantly used to call old bachelors.
There is a propensity belonging to common house-cats that is very
remarkable; I mean their violent fondness for fish, which appears
to be their most favourite food: and yet nature in this instance
seems to have planted in them an appetite that, unassisted, they
know not how to gratify: for of all quadrupeds cats are the least
disposed towards water; and will not, when they can avoid it, deign
to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element.
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