32 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



her constant practice to cover up her eggs with dry 

 leaves before she left the nest to feed. One unlucky 

 day a passer-by strayed a foot or so from the path, 

 and literally put his foot into the nest, breaking a 

 portion of the eggs. Such a mishap is generally fatal 

 to the success of the brood, just as the onset of a 

 dog, which perhaps snatches the tail from the hen, is 

 the inevitable precursor of failure. Even under such 

 disastrous circumstances we have known the cock 

 partridge to take his place upon the nest, after having 

 failed to persuade his partner to resume the per- 

 formance of her proper duties ; but her nerves are 

 generally unequal to the task, and she postpones her 

 energies for a few weeks, until another nest is chosen 

 and duly filled with eggs. The devotion which 

 partridges frequently manifest to their eggs is quite a 

 touching feature of their life history. Take, for 

 example, the conduct of a hen partridge which was 

 found brooding her eggs upon a hedgeside in Perth- 

 shire. She was discovered by some young school 

 children, one of whom lifted the old bird off her 

 nest, and carried her home in her apron to her 

 mother's door, exhibiting the captive in childish glee, 

 unconscious of the enormity of her offence. The 

 bird had then been carried a distance of about a 

 mile from her nest, and was at once borne back in 



