210 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



THE COMMON PARTRIDGE (PREDIX 

 GINEREA). 



AVERAGE length of male specimen from thirteen 

 inches, female less. This might justly be termed 

 an universal bird, for it is found generally 

 throughout Central Europe. 



With the solitary exception of the northern moors, it 

 is everywhere abundant throughout the British Isles. It 

 is perfectly true that wherever man brings into cultivation 

 the wastes, there the partridge delights to roam, and 

 there he assists in husbanding, though in a different sense, 

 the grain which civilisation supplies. The more richly 

 cultivated land harbours the greater number of these birds. 

 They choose their mates usually very early in spring — the 

 first mild days of February being not too early — and they 

 haunt the vicinity of their future nesting-places. Their 

 plans, however, for incubation often take a procrastinating 

 form, for it is not unusual to find only half grown birds 

 in the month of September. 



They lay variously ; sometimes one discovers a nest of a 

 dozen eggs, and even twenty may be seen in a scooped-out 

 hollow, or, preferably, a furrow of tilled ground, and this 

 mode of nidification prevails almost interruptedly 

 through the whole genus. 



Concealment is not in the nature of the plump little 

 bird, neither is there any great pretention to a nest, 

 properly so called. Neither is the selection of the site 

 always on terra firtna, for instances are recorded of trees 

 being appropriated for this purpose. " Far from the 

 madding crowd " is not by any means applicable to this 

 species of bird, for invariably he chooses the most 

 frequented parts. 



During the incubatory period they are extraordinarily 

 tame, and will allow the keeper or even strangers to 

 approach to within a foot or two of the nest. Neither 

 are they, at times, particular as to the companionship 

 they keep, for I have discovered on more than one occa- 



