4^ Grey Partridge 



or without any dew at all, then the birds do suffer, but this is a most 

 exceptional occurrence. 



A good many circumstances regulate the number of eggs in 

 the nest. Partridges are most prolific in their first year. The female 

 hatched in June, 1904, will lay a fuller clutch in 1905 than the female 

 hatched in 1903, and their fecundity rapidly diminishes each 

 succeeding year ; a female which has survived beyond four years is, 

 I think, for all practical purposes sterile. The same holds good with 

 the males, and it is only from the union of males and females of the 

 preceding year that we get a full clutch and a full hatch. 



A nest which only contains, say, eight or nine eggs when a bird 

 sits, is even more unsatisfactory than its paltr\- number indicates, 

 for, probably, half the eggs in the nest will prove to be rotten ; here 

 one would suppose that the female is old, and her ovaries exhausted. 

 A large nest of 18 or 20 eggs generally hatches out well, but occasion- 

 ally you find such a nest which will onl}' yield five or six chickens or 

 less — and in this case, I believe we are dealing with a faulty male. 

 When an old male has paired with a young female, the number of 

 eggs laid seems to show that the latter bird is normally prolific, 

 and the number of bad eggs to show that the fertilization was 

 incomplete. 



This all indicates how important it is that young birds should 

 pair together. If it were possible to shoot off all old birds, males 

 and females, at the end of the season, the stock the following year 

 would be enormously increased. 



We may now suppose that we have come to the day of hatching 

 — say June 15th — and from this time onwards the male shares 

 equally with the female the parental duties. While the eggs are 

 chipping, the male sits b}' the side of the nest, and as each moist 

 little ball of fluff comes out of the egg, it is passed over to the male, 

 who " broodies " it, while the female remains tight on the eggs. 

 Thus, one might find, if one disturbed the Partridges on this day, 

 seven or eight chickens under the male by the side of the nest, and 

 the female finishing the hatching of the remaining eggs. 



A Partridge chick, like those of all game-birds, when newly- 

 hatched, is covered with a beautiful fluffy down, and is able to run 

 and to a certain extent to take care of itself from the moment it 

 comes out of the egg. 



As soon as all the eggs are hatched, the parents lead the little 

 mites awa}^ from the nest on to the nearest feeding ground, probably 

 the field adjoining the bank on which they nested, leaving in their 

 old home nothing but broken egg-shells and rotten or unhatched 

 eggs. If the dew is very heavy, they will not take the chicks into 

 the rank, wet growth, but pick up what they can on the " outsides." 

 As the sun gains strength, and the vegetation dries, they get further 

 afield into the clover or young corn or peas, these latter being an 

 especially happy hunting-ground, by reason of the amount of insects, 

 blight, and so on, which may generally be found in the crop. 



