PARTRIDGE 



COMMON PARTRIDGE. 



PLATE CXLII. FIGURE I. 



Perdix cincrea, LATHAM. 



Tetrao ferdix, LiNN^us. 



THE Partridge begins to pair very early, even so soon 

 as the beginning of February. At pairing time there 

 are often fierce combats between the male birds. 



The nest is only a few straws placed in a mere hollow 

 scratched in the earth, under the shelter perhaps of some 

 tuft, generally in open grass and other fields, among peas, 

 corn, weeds, or herbage, at the foot of a tree or bush or by 

 a post, but at times in a small plantation, among shrubs, 

 under a hedgerow, even by the roadside, and on the moors 

 in the vicinity of cultivated land ; sometimes in holes of 

 decayed trees, as much as three or four feet from the 

 ground, and even in the thatch on the top of hay-stacks ; 

 I have been told of a nest placed in this situation, the 

 brood hatched, and safely reared. Another I have heard 

 of under the post of a hand-gate which was turned when- 

 ever passengers went backwards and forwards through it. 

 A brace of Partridges have been known, their own nest 

 having been destroyed, to take up with the nest and eggs 



