NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



There are a good many species of partridges 

 and pheasants native to South Africa. They lay 

 from four to a dozen eggs, according to their kind, 

 and the young birds are active from birth, the same 

 as the chickens of a domestic fowl. The partridge 

 chicks eat enormous numbers of insects, termites, etc. 

 Although partridges and quails rear their families 

 chiefly during the summer months, yet it is not an 

 uncommon occurrence for them to breed in the winter 

 time, which is the game season in South Africa. 

 Therefore the death of a partridge or quail during the 

 game season may mean the destruction of a clutch of 

 eggs or chicks. 



In the winter months, when insects are scarce, 

 the diet of the partridge consists mainly of wild bulbs, 

 berries, weed and grass seeds. In digging and 

 scratching for bulbs and seeds the bird unearths and 

 eats numbers of insects which are hibernating. 



We estimated that in twenty years the very lowest 

 average of insects eaten by a partridge would number 

 365,000. Taking half this number to be females, 

 and assuming each produced only 500 eggs during 

 one summer season, we should have the total of 

 91,250,000 insects. Assuming, again, half of these 

 are females, we should, the following season, have at 

 the same rate of increase, which has been placed 

 at a very low figure, the overwhelming total ot 

 2,281,250,000 insects accounted for by one partridge. 

 Assuming, again, a partridge or quail captures and 

 swallows one fertile female " flying ant " (termite) ; 

 if this termite had escaped death it would have founded 



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