OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 315 



therein. It is placed in a ground-depression, and occasion- 

 ally under a fallen log, or a projecting i*ock. It is composed 

 of a few leaves hastily scratched together. The somewhat 

 rude and simple structure being finished, the female at once 

 .begins to lay, on each consecutive day, at the rate of one 

 egg per day, her complement of eggs. This being done, she 

 immediately commences to incubate, the task devolving ex- 

 clusively upon her ; the male not even indirectly assisting 

 by attending to her demands for food. He skulks away to 

 the woods, leaving his partner alone, and only deigns to 

 present himself when called to assist in expelling a common 

 enemy; and, frequently, not until after the eggs have been 

 captured or destroyed, and the nest broken up. The period 

 of incubation ranges from nineteen to twenty days. Whilst 

 the process is going on, the female is a close and constant 

 sitter, and permits a very near approach before deserting 

 her charge. 



When the young are hatched, she is exceedingly devoted 

 towards them, and very courageous and wily in their defence. 

 Like the young of Gallus domesticus, they follow the 

 mother almost as soon as they are hatched, and learn very 

 quickly to comprehend her clucking call. When squatting 

 by the roadside with her brood, the approach of a person 

 is the signal for an assault, and the manifestation of strategy 

 and artifice. The first impulse is to fly at the face of the 

 intruder, but the very next moment she is tumbling over 

 and over upon the ground, seemingly in the greatest distress. 

 These movements are followed by a ruse in which lameness 

 is very artfully imitated. While the mother is thus agitated, 

 the young Partridges scamper in every direction to places 

 of shelter and concealment. Having accomplished her part 

 in the drama, she flies to a brief distance, and by her char- 

 acteristic cluck, soon gathers her brood together under 

 her wings. 



The young subsist upon the seeds of various plants, and 

 also upon the different fruits which they encounter. In the 



