104 BRITISH BIRDS. 



the moors, that it has led to the latter being called, to 

 mark the variety, moor-partridges. 



Partridges are very prolific ; the eggs being never 

 fewer than twelve, and often as many as twenty. A 

 hole scratched in the dry mould, commonly sheltered by 

 a bush or tuft of grass, serves for a nest. The male 

 takes no part in the toil of incubation ; but he is atten- 

 tive to his mate, and joins with her in defending the 

 brood. Of this the following is an instance. The at- 

 tention of a person was arrested by some objects on the 

 ground, which, on approaching, he found to be a male 

 and a female partridge, engaged in a battle with a car- 

 rion-crow. So absorbed were they in the issue of the 

 contest, and moreover so successful, that they actually 

 held the crow till he was seized and taken from them 

 by the spectator. On search being made, the young 

 birds, very lately hatched, were found concealed among 

 the grass. It appeared that the crow, a mortal enemy 

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

 one of these, had been attacked, and that successfully, 

 by the parent-birds. 



The devices of the partridge to save its brood have 

 often been noticed. White, of Selborne, says : — "A 

 hen partridge came out of a ditch, and ran along shiver- 

 ing with her wings, and crying out as if wounded, and 



