CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 305 



In reoard to nestino-habits, Howard Saunders 

 says : " The Partridge often pairs in February, but 

 eggs are seldom laid until the end of April or 

 beginning of May. From twelve to twenty of these 

 are often produced by a single hen, but as many as 

 thirty-three have been found in one nest, from 

 twenty-three of which the young were hatched and 

 went off with the old birds, while four of the eggs 

 left behind had live chicks in them." 



The usual colour of the shell is olive-brown, but 

 "pale blue or whitish varieties are not very uncom- 

 mon." Of the parents solicitude for their young, 

 the same author says : "I have seen the old birds 

 show a bold front to the Hen- Harrier for several 

 minutes while covering the retreat of their brood to 

 the shelter of a hedge." And here I may remark 

 that the love for their offspring in bird life is a very 

 beautiful feature ; at such times the self-sacrifice 

 of the parents is very clearly demonstrated by the 

 artifices they adopt to bring whatever danger there 

 may be on themselves instead of allowing it to fall 

 on the little ones. One of their devices, when man 

 approaches the nest, is for one of the parents to 

 pretend to be injured and barely able to fiy, so that 

 when someone coming along, unacquainted with this 

 characteristic, runs after it in the hopes of 

 being able to catch it, he will never accomp- 

 lish his purpose. He is only on a fool's errand, as 

 the bird, when its would-be captor has been led 

 far enough away from the nest, will fly back 

 again. 



