336 TETRAONID.E. 



twcnty-onc eggs, and she brought off nineteen birds. The 

 round of ploughing had occupied about twenty minutes, in 

 which time she, probably assisted by the cockbird, had re- 

 moved the twenty-one eggs to a distance of about forty 

 yards." 



Incubation with the Partridge lasts twenty-one days, and 

 the great hatching-time in the southern parts of England is 

 from the twentieth of June till the end of that month. Mr. 

 Selby observes, that " as soon as the young are excluded, 

 the male bird joins the covey, and displays equal anxiety 

 wdth the female for their support and defence. There are 

 few persons conversant with country affairs who have not wit- 

 nessed the confusion produced in a brood of young Par- 

 tridges by any sudden alarm ; or who have not admired the 

 stratagems to which the parent birds have recourse, in order 

 to deceive and draw off the intruder. Their parental in- 

 stinct, indeed, is not always confined to mere devices for 

 engaging attention ; but where there exists a probability of 

 success, they will fight obstinately for the preservation of 

 their young, as appears from many instances already narrated 

 by different writers, and to which the following may be 

 added, for the truth of which I can vouch : — A person en- 

 gaged in a field, not far from my residence, had his attention 

 arrested by some objects on the ground, which, upon ap- 

 proaching, he found to be two Partridges, a male and female, 

 engaged in battle with a Carrion Crow ; so successful, and so 

 absorbed were they in the issue of the contest, that they 

 actually held the Crow till it was seized and taken from them 

 by the spectator of the scene. Upon search, the young 

 birds, very lately hatched, were found concealed amongst the 

 grass. It would appear, therefore, that the Crow, a mortal 

 enemy to all kinds of young game, in attempting to carry 

 off one of these, had been attacked by the parent birds, and 

 with this singular result. Markwick says he has seen, when 



