5^ French Partridge 



penned by men who have had very Uttle personal knowledge of their 

 ways ; the few articles which have a good word for the Frenchman, 

 are the work of Suffolk and Norfolk naturalists, to whom the bird 

 is as familiar as the English. For over 20 years I have enjo\ed the 

 sport of Partridge shooting in Suffolk, for the last fifteen almost 

 exclusively " dri\-ing," and I should like to put forward my 

 personal testimony to the value of the French Partridge for sport- 

 ing purposes, and to protest against the unfair and ignorant attacks 

 made upon him by the majority of professional writers on Natural 

 History. 



The French Partridge belongs to the genus Caccabis, a genus 

 which is spread over the Pahearctic, Ethiopian and Oriental regions, 

 and is widely removed from the genus Perdix, of which our Partridge 

 is the type. 



I don't think the " Red-legs " separate for pairing quite so 

 early as the grey bird, and one may often see coveys of these birds 

 after all the English birds are paired off. Their nesting, however, 

 occurs at about the same time, and, as a matter of fact, the earliest 

 nests found are most commonh' those of the Frenchman. Thus, I 

 have a note of a nest found with four eggs in it on April 15, 1893 ; 

 this would point to April 8th or gth as the day on which the first egg 

 was laid, and is the earliest date I have for any Partridge's nest. 

 The Red-leg, on the whole, is probably a little earher in laying, 

 say rather less than a week earlier on the average, but as she usually 

 takes a longer time laying the clutch, the time of hatching is 

 approximately the same. The site chosen for the nest is similar 

 to that of the Grey Partridge, but they are more prone to nest in 

 woods than is the latter bird, and, occasionallv, choose quite 

 extraordinary places for that purpose ; for instance, the top of a 

 hay-stack, or a low pollard tree, or a thatched roof. 



During the period of laying, the eggs are never covered while 

 the bird is off them ; that is to say, they are never covered at all, 

 and a much heavier toll is taken by egg-eating vermin of these eggs 

 than of those of the English bird on this account. The number of 

 the eggs is very variable, but 15 eggs is about the average, and 18 is 

 not very unusual. The period of incubation is 23 days, against 24 

 in the case of the English species. 



After the eggs are laid, the male bird pays little or no attention 

 to his wife. In fact, he generally leaves her to perform her domestic 

 duties alone, while he goes to his club and enjoys himself. You 

 may sometimes see small coveys of these birds on the young corn- 

 fields in May, and they are all male birds, whose wives are looking 

 after the nursery. 



French Partridges desert their nests on very small provocation. 

 When a Grey bird has really settled down to the work of incubation 

 (after five or six days), she is a most resolute sitter. It is not 

 so with the other species ; they will desert their eggs after sitting 

 for a fortnight or three weeks, or even when the eggs are chipping, 



