Grey Partridge 47 



During the period of laying and sitting — a period wiiich extends 

 in the case of a clutch of 15 eggs, to, say, 44 or 45 days — the male 

 Partridge is in close attendance on his partner. Suppose the first 

 egg were laid on April 20th, then the chicks would be coming off 

 about June 4th. 



But April 2oth is rather an earlier date than the average time 

 for depositing the hrst egg. Taking tlie 1st May as the date for the 

 first egg, then the hatch will take place about the 14th or 15th of 

 June — and, at home, I alwa\s reckon the week in which the T5th 

 June falls, as the chief hatching week of the season. 



This is the really critical time for the Partridge, and the prospects 

 for tlie autumn shooting depend, in a very large measure, on the 

 climatic conditions prevailing for the next three weeks. 



Before the period of incubation, the sitting bird will put up 

 with a good deal of cold, or even cold and wet together, which is 

 the worst possible combination ; and after the chicks are three weeks 

 old, and beginning to get their first quills, they can resist a moderate 

 amount of bad weather, but from the 15th June to the 7th or 14th 

 of July, bad weather, prolonged cold, much wet, and an absence of 

 at least an average amount of sunshine, means a very heavy death- 

 roll, and a loss in the worst years of, perhaps, 85 per cent or more 

 of the young birds. 



The season of 1903 was such a one, and the young Partridges 

 were drowned and starved and frozen literally by thousands. Many 

 of the best shootings in the Eastern Counties were not shot over at 

 all, and where shooting was permitted, the bags did not reach more 

 than one-fifth or one-sixth of their normal dimensions. As a case 

 in point, on our own ground, which in a good average year yields 

 about 1,300 brace, we made a total of only 265 brace. 



I shot over a little outlying farm in the early days of September 

 in that year with three or four guns — a farm that should give from 

 15 to 20 brace. We killed nine grey Partridges, and e^'ery one of 

 them old birds. We only found two coveys, or what appeared to 

 be coveys, and one or two single birds, and when we shot into these 

 two coveys, we found them made up entirely of old birds, which, 

 having no chicks of their own, had collected together, as their natural 

 instinct taught them to do. There was not, as far as I could 

 ascertain, one single young bird on any part of that farm. 



The opposite condition, as regards weather — a prolonged drought 

 with 14 or 15 hours unbroken sunshine per day — is, in my experience 

 entirely favourable at this critical time. 



I have never known a drought to do any harm to the birds, 

 though the farm crops, the hay, clover, corn and roots ma}- be burnt 

 to a cinder. An occasional light shower is, no doubt, beneficial 

 in periods of great drought, the dews are almost always very heavy, 

 and in the early mornings every blade of grass is bathed in moisture. 

 Partridges do not require much ffuid, and these dews provide them 

 with their daily needs. If a drought occurs, with very small dews^ 



