French Partridge 57 



as readily as in the first few da\s, and man\- nests are lost every 

 season from this unfortunate habit. 



At the time of hatching, the chicks are placed at a great dis- 

 advantage as compared with the English chicks, owing to there 

 being only one parent present on duty. The male hardly ever bothers 

 himself to be present, and many chickens or eggs are lost from the 

 bird not being able to l)roodle a number of newly-hatched chickens 

 and finish off hatching at the same time. In consequence, she often 

 goes off with the chicks which have hatched, and leaves four or five 

 unhatched eggs in the nest with live chicks inside them, or while the 

 last eggs are being hatched, some of the earlier chicks perish from 

 cold. \Mien the time at last arrives to take the chicks afield, the 

 French Partridge exhibits no sort of forethouglit for the wee things 

 she has charge of. She drags them prodigiously long journeys 

 through wet corn or over heavy p>lough, Iea\-ing a number of dead 

 behind whenever a tolerabl}- heav}- shower comes on. 



If danger threatens, she makes no attempt to protect h.er helpless 

 offsjiring. Xo trailing of broken wings and other wiles to draw the 

 intruder away. " Every one for himself " is her motto, and at the 

 first sign of disaster, off she flies and leaves the chicks to manage as 

 best they can. For all these reasons, a Red-leg is stigmatised by 

 the keepers as a " bad mother," alwaj'S " drabbling " her young 

 about, giving them no rest. Sixteen or seventeen eggs in the nest 

 is no very unusual number, but how often do we see a covev of an\-- 

 thing like that number in mid-July ; twelve is unusual, and eight 

 or ten the more common number. 



If one turns to any book dealing with the French Partridge, 

 one cannot help being struck by the insistence with which writers 

 refer to the habit of tlie species of perching in trees. One would 

 imagine from their unanimity that a covey, when flushed, habitually 

 flew to the nearest trees and perched there. Now, I have no doubt 

 that the habit lias been noted bv sufficiently good observers, but I 

 am quite convinced it must be a very rare occurrence. For myself, 

 I have lived in the centre of a first-rate Red-leg district, and have 

 shot over it for 25 years. I must have seen many thousand Red- 

 legs flushed in that time, and I have never seen one perch, or attempt 

 to perch in a tree. Nor have any of our keepers been more fortunate. 

 I have seen, on occasion, these birds sitting on a low wall, sunning 

 themselves early on a summer's morning, while the ground was still 

 dripping with dew, but I ne\'er saw one attempt to alight anywhere 

 but on the ground, when they were in\-oluntari]y flushed b}- beaters, 

 dogs or other enemies. 



The statement that the French has nearly exterminated the 

 English bird in many districts is not in accordance with fact. It is 

 true that the French bird will exist in some localities w'here, for 

 different reasons, the English will not ; but that is due to the 

 surroundings, and not to the pugnacity of the former species. Kill 

 all the French Partridges in the localitv, vou will not benefit the 



