For the second year a special effort was made to locate partridge nests. 

 In the summer of 1959 » two men searched for nests for over one week in late 

 May and early J\me. Several methods were tried; the most promising included 

 dragging, across grassy cover, a nylon rope with tin cans containing rattling 

 stones attached. No nests were located during the intensive searches and it 

 has been demonstrated on several occasions that hen partridge sit very 

 tightly and are difficult to flush. Several sources state that hens flush 

 more readily in the early stages of incubation, but this has not been borne 

 out, at least in two instances. A tractor mowing hay on July 3, 1959 » 

 "straddled" a hen partridge before she flushed. One egg was taken from the 

 nest and inspection showed that the embryo was in the 7th day of development. 

 The next day I touched the hen with ray hand before she flushed. In June 

 I960 a farmer fixing a fence stepped on an incubating hen partridge. The 

 hen escaped without injury and an egg taken from the nest was found to be in 

 the 5th day of incubation. 



Very few nests have been observed to date. In 1959 we visited several 

 schools in the Winchester area and requested that all nests be reported to 

 us. Although several pupils told of finding nests previously, no nests were 

 reported in 1959. This year we publicized our request for nest locations in 

 the Winchester and Chesterville papers and two nests were reported to us. 

 Table 3 siimraarizes our nesting data. 



Haying in I960 was late, due to very wet weather in May and unseasonably 

 low temperatures in both May and June. The first field mowed was noted on 

 June 16, but the peak of mowing did not occur until the first two weeks in 

 July. Slightly less than 50 percent of 80 hayfields observed between 

 Winchester Springs and Kempt ville had been mowed by July 12, I960. Hay field 

 counts will be made in future to obtain accurate information concerning hay 

 mowing. 



Since the peak of the hatch and the main mowing period compares closely 

 to similar data during previous years, we can assume that nest losses from 

 farming activities should have been about normal. Wet, cool weather probably 

 caused the increase in renesting and late hatches. 



TK 



