NATURAL HISTORY. 



321 



Family IV. . . Tetraonidas. 

 Sub-family a. . Perdicince. 



PERDIX (Gr. Yltpdi!;, a Partridge.) 



Cinerea (Lat. ashy), the Partridge. 



The PARTRIDGE, an inhabitant of England, is well known 

 as one of the birds included in the designation of " game." 

 It lays from fifteen to twenty eggs in a rude nest placed on 

 the ground, and displays great attachment to them, and no 

 small ingenuity in decoying an intruder away. Mr. Jesse 

 mentions that a gentleman who was overlooking his plough- 

 man, saw a partridge run from her nest, almost crushed by 

 the horses' hoofs. Being certain that the next furrow must 

 bury the eggs and nest, he watched for the return of the 

 plough, when to his great astonishment the nest, previously 

 containing twenty-one eggs, was vacant. After a search, he 

 found the bird sitting upon the eggs under a hedge, nearly 

 forty yards from the nest, to which place she and her mate 

 had removed the whole number in less than twenty minutes. 

 In some parts of England the Partridge is very plentiful 



