386 TETRAONID^. 



her, before he left the field, sitting under the hedge upon 

 twenty-one eggs, and she brought off nineteen birds. The 

 round of ploughing had occupied about twenty minutes, 

 in which time she, probably assisted by the cock bird, had 

 removed the twenty-one eggs to a distance of about forty 

 yards.'* 



Incubation with the Partridge lasts twenty-one days, and 

 the great hatching-time in the southern parts of England, 

 is from the 20th of June till the end of that month. Mr. 

 Selby observes, that " as soon as the young are excluded, 

 the male bird joins the covey, and displays equal anxiety 

 with the female for their support and defence. There are 

 few persons conversant with country affairs who have not 

 witnessed the confusion produced in a brood of young Par- 

 tridges by any sudden alarm ; or who have not admired 

 the stratagems to which the parent birds have recourse, 

 in order to deceive and draw off the intruder. Their 

 parental instinct, indeed, is not always confined to mere 

 devices for engaging attention ; but where there exists a 

 probability of success, they will fight obstinately for the 

 preservation of their young, as appear from many instances 

 already narrated by different writers, and to which the fol- 

 lowing may be added, for the truth of which I can vouch: 

 A person engaged in a field, not far from my residence, 

 had his attention arrested by some objects on the ground, 

 which, upon approaching, he found to be two Partridges, 

 a male and female, engaged in battle with a Carrion Crow ; 

 so successful and so absorbed were they in the issue of the 

 contest, that they actually held the Crow till it was seized 

 and taken from them by the spectator of the scene. Upon 

 search, the young birds, very lately hatched, were found 

 concealed amongst the grass. It would appear, therefore, 

 that the Crow, a mortal enemy to all kinds of young game, 

 in attempting to carry off one of these, had been attacked 



