304 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



Like most ground birds, the Partridge is a skulking 

 species, and will prefer to crouch low and motionless until 

 almost trodden upon. He then rises suddenly, and on 

 whirring wing, now sailing, now flapping, flies it may be 

 over several fields ere alighting, his deep brown upper 

 plumage contrasting richly with the yellow stubbles or 

 the deep green of the clover. The Partridge pairs very 

 early in the year — that is to say, the birds hatched in the 

 previous season, for I hazard the conjecture that this 

 bird remains in pairs for life. At all seasons they may 

 be seen in pairs, and doubtless when their life history is 

 better known this matter will be fully confirmed. The 

 first sign the Partridge gives us of his coming nesting 

 season is in his voice. By the latter end of April, as we 

 wander over the fields at eventide, we are often startled 

 by a peculiar cry, it may be close at hand or even several 

 fields away, and can only be compared to a snatch of 

 idiotic laughter. Cry after cry is heard, and if we 

 remain still we shall probably see the author of it 

 advancing through the shadows in short stages, uttering 

 it as he comes, and, by the light of the moon, or the last 

 streaks of the parting day, we are enabled to recognise 

 him as the Partridge. This peculiar note is his love song, 

 with which he serenades his mate right through the 

 laying and hatching season. Should we hear it, how- 

 ever, in the late summer months, the sportsman will tell 

 us that it bodes him no good, for in nine cases out often 

 the brood of the year has been unfortunate. 



The nest of the Partridge is made in May, some- 

 times not until the beginning of June. The female bird 

 merely scratches out a cavity, and lines it with a few 

 leaves and bits of withered herbage. It is often made 

 down the hedgerow sides, in the ditches, sometimes 

 amongst growing corn or clover, and not unfrequently 



