130 PARTRIDGE. 



the hen of which had been killed, on the estate of Colonel Burgoyne, 

 in Essex. The hen bird alone sits, the male keeping watch, and when 

 the young are hatched he joins the covey, and protects and feeds them 

 with the dam. 



The eggs, which are of a pale greenish brown colour, are laid to- 

 wards the end of May or the beginning of June, and are usually 

 ten or twelve in number, but sometimes as many as fifteen, eighteen, 

 or even twenty. The 'Norfolk News' mentions a nest hatched at 

 Ditchingham between the 13th. and 18th. of April, 1851. Twenty- 

 two eggs are recorded to have been found in one nest, and thirty- 

 one in another, two hen birds having occupied the same one, and 

 in the former instance the cock bird gathered half of the united 

 family under his wings, the pair sitting side by side, but looking 

 different ways. The young leave the nest almost as soon as they are 

 hatched. Incubation lasts about twenty-one days, beginning about the 

 20th. of June. 



