2-979-583 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Covey" - painted by J. Wolf - from the Exhibition of the British Institution, 1857. Engraving of a painting: '...Mr. Wolf’s very painstaking and original picture. The word "covey", as used by the artist, although it is chiefly applied to partridges, is taken to mean an assemblage of birds before the pairing season (which, for partridges, is about the third week of February), and not simply a brood or hatch of young birds under the protection of their parents. We have, therefore, goldfinches as well as partridges in the picture. A covey is sometimes formed even after the pairing season, when very severe weather, such as we have here represented, sets in unusually late, and the birds are then said to pack'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.