GAME BIRDS, GULLS, ETC. 199 
leave the nest—a very primitive structure—within 
twenty-four hours of their appearance in the world. 
The partridge is singularly careless in its choice of 
a nesting-place, and never pauses to consider whether 
its brood will be in danger from undue proximity to 
mankind. Cases have even, and not unfrequently, 
been recorded in which the bundle of grass which does 
duty for a nest has been placed so close toa frequented 
footpath as to render it almost a miracle that the 
eggs escaped the tread of the passers-by. After the 
young birds are hatched, the mother is extremely 
bold in their defence, and has more than once in- 
flicted serious damage upon the face of an intruder. 
The bird, too, has sometimes been known to remove 
her eggs to a place of safety after the nest had been 
discovered. In one such instance, no fewer than 
twenty-one eggs were carried to a distance of forty 
yards in less than half an hour, both birds, probably, 
taking their share in the transport. 
The number of eggs laid by the partridge is ex- 
ceedingly variable ; almost every individual number, 
from ten to thirty-three, having at different times 
been recorded. When more than twenty eggs are 
found in one nest, however, there is always the possi- 
bility that two hens may have combined, and entered 
into an arrangement by which the duties of maternity 
should be shared between them. The eggs are of an 
uniform brownish-yellow hue. 
ALTHOUGH the Pheasant is an exceedingly destruc- 
tive bird, and is said, indeed, to be only second in its 
