B. IX.] THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. 241 



place), they collect together some thorns and sticks for a 

 defence against the hawks and eagles, and there lay their 

 eggs and incubate. As soon as the young are hatched, they 

 lead them out, because their slow flight prevents them from 

 procuring food for them. The quail and partridge shelter 

 their young under their wings, like the domestic fowl. 



2. They do not lay and incubate in the same place, lest 

 any one should discover the place while they sat there for a 

 long while ; and when any one in hunting falls upon the 

 nest, the partridge halts before him, as if she could be taken, 

 and draws him after her in the hopes of capture, until all 

 the young ones have had time to escape, and after she flies 

 back and recalls them to their nest. The partridge does 

 not lay less ,than ten eggs, and often sixteen. As it has been 

 already observed, it is a bird of an evil and cunning dispo- 

 sition. In the spring they separate with singing and fight- 

 ing into pairs with the females which each may happen to 

 take. The partridge being a bird of violent passions, it tries 

 to prevent the female from incubation by rolling and break- 

 ing the eggs, if it can find them. The female, opposing this 

 artifice by another, lays her eggs as she runs, and often, 

 from her desire of laying, she drops her eggs wherever 

 she may be, if the male is present ; and, that they may all 

 be preserved, she does not return to them. If she is ob- 

 served by men, she leads them away from her eggs as from 

 her young ones, and shows herself just before them until 

 they are drawn away from the nest. 



3. When the hen has escaped for incubation, the cocks 

 crow and fight together. These are called widowers. The 

 vanquished in the combat follows his conqueror who alone 

 has intercourse with him ; and if any one is overcome by 

 a second, or by any chance one, the victor has secret inter- 

 course with him. This does not take place always, but only at 

 certain seasons of the year. The quail does the same, and 

 domestic fowls also ; for when a new one is offered in the 

 temples, where they are kept without the females, all in 

 turn are united with it. Tame partridges have sexual inter- 

 course with wild ones, and strike and insult them. 



4. The leader of the wild partridges attacks the partridge 

 used in fowling, and goes out crowing as if he would fight. 

 When he is taken in the trap, the other goes out and crows 



