Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Partridge
Ah, nut-brown partridges! Ah, brilliant pheasants!
And ah, ye poachers!—’Tis no sport for peasants.
Byron—Don Juan. Canto XIII. St. 75.
Or have you mark’d a partridge quake,
Viewing the towering falcon nigh?
She cuddles low behind the brake:
Nor would she stay; nor dares she fly.
Prior—The Dove. St. 14.
Who finds the partridge in the puttock’s nest,
But may imagine how the bird was dead,
Although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?
Henry VI. Pt. II. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 191.
Like as a feareful partridge, that is fledd
From the sharpe hauke which her attacked neare,
And falls to ground to seeke for succor theare,
Whereas the hungry spaniells she does spye,
With greedy jawes her ready for to teare.
Spenser—Faerie Queene. Bk. III. Canto VIII. St. 33.