GREY PARTRIDGE. 223 



tlous than that of the Grouse, these organs are much smaller in 

 the former birds. They feed principally in the morning and to- 

 wards night, betake themselves during the middle of the day to 

 places covered with shrubs or ferns, or bask under the hedges, 

 having, like other Gallinaceous birds, a propensity to flutter 

 and sun themselves in dry sheltered places. In the evening, 

 before betaking themselves to rest, they are often heard in the 

 fields uttering their harsh, sharp cry, apparently for the pur- 

 pose of apprising each other of their position, so that the strag- 

 glers may come up, or the male join his mate. They repose at 

 night on the ground, generally in an open and comparatively 

 bare place. 



During winter the Partridges keep together in coveys, seek- 

 ing their food among the stubble ; but early in spring they 

 separate, and by the beginning of March are generally paired, 

 although the eggs are not laid until June. The place which 

 they select for their nest is various, it being found in corn and 

 grass fields, in pastures, among shrubs, by hedges, sometimes 

 even by road-sides. It is merely a slight hollow scraped in the 

 soil, with a few straws, and ultimately contains from ten to 

 fifteen eggs, of a pale greenish-brown colour, smooth, thick- 

 shelled ovato-pyriform, averaging an inch and a half in length, 

 and an inch and a twelfth in their greatest breadth. The cry 

 of the male is frequent in spring, and at that season he is very 

 pugnacious, driving off intruders from his territory, and guard- 

 ing his mate. Although he takes no part in incubation, he re- 

 mains in the neighbourhood of the nest, and on apprehension 

 of danger to it comes up and endeavours to entice from it the 

 person who may have approached too near for its safety. 



The young are led about by both parents, who manifest the 

 greatest anxiety for their safety, and have recourse to the expe- 

 dients usual among birds of this order and many of the Gralla- 

 tores to withdraw the attention of intruders from them. So 

 gi*eat is the affection of the partridge for its young that in the 

 very cold and wet summer of 1836, as I have been informed by 

 my friend Mr. Weir of Boghead, several pairs were found dead 

 in the fields near Bathgate, with their broods under their wings, 

 they having perished under the influence of cold and hunger 



