224 THE COMMON PARTRIDGE 



there were no broods of Partridges, I was much struck by the fact 

 that stubble-fields abounded, to an unusual degree, with ant-hills. 

 In ordinary seasons, these are found torn to pieces and levelled. 

 This year, scarcely one was touched ; and even at the present time, 

 the end of October, winged ants are far more numerous than they 

 usually are at this time of the year. Besides insects. Partridges 

 feed on the seeds of weeds, green leaves, grain spilt in reaping, and 

 on corn which has been sown. This last charge is a serious one : 

 yet, on the whole, it is most probable that Partridges do far more 

 good than harm on an estate, the insects and weeds which they 

 destroy more than making amends for their consumption of seed- 

 corn. 



I might fill many pages with anecdotes of the devotion of Part- 

 ridges to their maternal duties — their assiduity in hatching their 

 eggs, their disregard of personal danger while thus employed, their 

 loving trickeries to divert the attention of enemies from their broods 

 to themselves, and even the actual removal of their eggs from a 

 suspectedly dangerous position to a place of safety ; but with many 

 of these stories the reader must be already familiar if he has read 

 any of the works devoted to such subjects. 



The number of eggs laid before incubation commences varies from 

 ten to fifteen, or more. Yarrell says, ' Twenty-eight eggs in one 

 instance, and thirty-three eggs in two other instances, are recorded 

 as having been found in one nest ; but there is little doubt, in these 

 cases, that more than one bird had laid eggs in the same nest.' 

 This may be ; but I find in a French author an instance in which 

 no less than forty-two eggs were laid by a Partridge in captivity, all 

 of which, being placed under a hen, would have produced chicks, 

 but for the occurrence of a thunder-storm accompanied by a deluge 

 of rain which flooded the nest, when the eggs, which all contained ■ 

 chicks, were on the point of being hatched. The average number 

 of birds in a covey is, I believe, about twelve ; quite enough to 

 supply the sportsmen and to account for the abundance of the bird. 



The character of the Partridge's flight is familiar to most people. 

 Simultaneously with the startled cry of alarm from the cock comes 

 a loud whirr-r-r as of a spinning-wheel : away fly the whole party in 

 a body, keeping a horizontal, nearly straight line : in turns each 

 bird ceases to beat its wings and sails on for a few yards with 

 extended pinions ; the impetus exhausted which carried it through 

 this movement, it plies its wings again, and if it have so long escaped 

 the fowler, may, by this time, consider itself out of danger, for its 

 flight, though laboured, is tolerably rapid. 



The call of the Partridge is mostly uttered in the evening, as soon 

 as the beetles begin to l^uzz. The birds are now proceeding to 

 roost, which they always do in the open field, the covey forming a 

 circle with their heads outwards, to be on the watch against their 

 enemies, of whom they have many. They feed for the most part 



