THE PARTRIDGE 
sexes, more especially at morn and even and during the 
mating season. If heard later on in summer it is an 
omen of disaster, telling that the brood has come to grief. 
The food of this species consists of grain, tender shoots of 
clover and other plants, blackberries and other small 
wild fruits and berries, worms, insects, and larve, snails, 
and especially ants’ eggs, the latter serving as the prin- 
cipal fare of the chicks in many cases. ‘The bird is most 
active during the morning and evening, and in the hot 
hours is very fond of basking on some open spot and 
dusting itself. "The covey sleeps on the fields, the birds 
forming a ring, with heads turned outwards. ‘The Part- 
ridge is monogamous, and in March as a rule separates 
into pairs for breeding purposes ; the old birds possibly 
mate for life, but the young of the previous season unite 
at that time. The nest is a mere hollow in some hedge- 
bottom, amongst growing clover, grass, or grain, or under 
a mass of herbage on rougher ground. It is lined with a 
little dry grass or some dead leaves, and the eggs, from ten 
to twenty according to the age of the hen, are uniform 
olive brown. Occasionally a nearly white or pale green 
specimen is seen in a clutch of the normal colour. ‘The 
broods and their parents keep together for the rest of the 
season, grain-fields and turnip-patches being favourite 
haunts. 
The adult male Partridge has the crown and nape 
brown streaked with pale buff, the forehead and sides of 
the head reddish chestnut ; the general colour of the rest 
of the upper parts is slate-grey vermiculated or sprinkled 
with black and barred with buff and chestnut; the 
wings are brown, the lesser and mediam coverts marked 
on the inner web with chestnut and with buff shaft- 
stripes ; the tail is chestnut; the throat and neck are 
chestnut ; the breast is grey, below which, and extend- 
ing on to the abdomen, is a crescentic patch of dark 
chestnut; the remainder of the under parts is pale 
265 
