the Virgmia7i Partridge. 17 



brought them home with me in the coach. I have a small 

 garden, walled round and covered over with wire, into which 

 I turned them, but each brace separated from the other by 

 a wire partition. Towards the latter end of May 1 perceived 

 one of the cock birds carrying straws, and twisting them 

 about over his head ; and 1 found they were making a nest 

 within a bundle of pea-sticks, which were placed in the garden 

 for them to run under and hide themselves. 



This nest was the joint production of male and female ; it 

 was placed on the ground within the pea-sticks, and shaped 

 much like a wren's, with a hole on one side, and covered over 

 at top. After the hen had laid about twelve eggs she began to 

 sit, and with as much assiduity as our common hen. When I 

 thought it was her time to hatch I examined the nest, and 

 found it deserted, and the egg-shells, which had evidently 

 contained young birds, lying about. Much pleased with this 

 circumstance, I went cautiously about to find the dam with 

 her little ones, and, after searching a considerable time, the 

 first intimation I had of her presence was from her flying 

 in my face with great agitation, like our common hen. I 

 retired much gratified, and observed the young ones, nine in 

 number, collect again under the wings of their mother. I'he 

 assiduity of this excellent parent was truly exemplary, and 

 her attention unremitting, and she reared them every one 

 with very little trouble. What is very singular, there were 

 eight cocks and but one hen, all of whom were reared till 

 they moulted, and got their adult plumage ; when, from some 

 cause which I could never ascertain, they began to droop 

 one after another, and before Christmas all the young birds 

 died. Though I examined the stomachs and gizzards of most 

 of them, yet I never could find out the cause of their deaths ; 

 but I have little doubt of its being some deleterious sub- 

 stance picl|g^ up in the place where I separated them from 

 the old ones,, soon after they became full fledged, as the old 

 birds escaped this mortality, and the cock bird is now living 

 (October, 1830). 



The other pair never bred, but it was easily accounted for, 

 as the hen was unwell from the first time I turned them 

 down, and she lingered on to October and then died. 



Previously to and during the time the hen was sitting the 

 cock serenaded her with his harsh and singular notes, some 

 of them very similar to the mewing of a cat. He had also 

 a peculiarity of constantly running round in a circle, till the 

 ground whereon he performed his evolutions was worn as 

 bare as a road, and the turf trodden down much in the same 



Vol. IV. — No. 17. c 



