454 BRITISH BIRDS. 
this fare is varied by insects, beetles, and grubs, on which it chiefly lives 
in the summer, and when the young are hatched the parent birds lead 
them to the ant-hills to feed on the larve. Inautumn the stubbles are 
visited for the sake of grain of all kinds, from wheat to beans; and the 
tender shoots of the clover, blackberries growing in the hedges, and small 
seeds of all kinds are greedily devoured. The Partridge usually retires to 
rest at dusk, generally choosing some bare place in the open fields, where, 
after the young can fly, the whole party arrange themselves in a small circle, 
with their heads outwards. Should danger then approach, no matter from 
what direction, it is detected, the alarm-note sounds, and the birds either 
crouch low and motionless, or separate and fly quickly off, not to unite 
again until daylight. In spite of all this vigilance, however, the rat and 
the weasel often thin its ranks. 
The Partridge pairs early in the year; late in February or early im March 
the coveys break up; the old cock quietly leaves the flock with his mate, 
to whom he remains faithful as long as the lives of both are spared by the 
sportsman ; and the birds of the year pair, not without an occasional fight, 
for the males are said to exceed the females in number. 
The note of the Partridge is a very peculiar one; clear, loud, and pitched 
very high, it can be heard at a great distance, and it is constantly uttered, 
principally in the morning and evening, and most persistently during the 
pairing-season. It resembles the word kir-r-rik, the latter syllable some- 
times repeated many times rapidly, especially if the bird be flying away 
alarmed. This note is common to both sexes. 
The Partridge appears to be strictly monogamous ; but though the coveys 
break up early, it is by no means an early breeder. The poor bird has so 
many enemies, that it seldom happens that a pair enjoy each other’s society 
for many seasons in succession, and April is generally over before the 
successful males are in secure and undisputed possession of the females. 
_ It is not often that eggs are found even in the south of England before 
May; and in Scotland, Macgillivray says that they are seldom found 
before June. In England most eggs are laid during May, and the great 
hatching-time is the latter half of June. The Partridge seeks a site 
for her nest in some dense hedge-bottom, in the ditches where the 
tangled vegetation is the densest, or amongst the growing corn or clover 
or under a gorse bush, and not unfrequently in the most exposed situations 
on the roadside or near a path, where, curiously enough, it very often escapes 
discovery. The Partridge nests on the ground; but Dixon has known it 
to bring off its young in safety from a hole in the thatch of a bean-stack 
twelve feet from the ground, and other instances quite as eccentric are on 
record. The nest is a very slight structure, and consists of a few dry 
grasses and dead leaves, or other vegetable substances, scratched together in 
aslovenly manner. The eggs of the Partridge are usually from ten to fifteen 
