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CHAPTER IV 



AS CONCERNING PARTRIDGE-NESTS 



THAT May is, in ordinary seasons, the chief month 

 in which our English partridges lay their eggs will be 

 admitted by the majority of people. Yet, strange as 

 the circumstance appears to be, it happens now and 

 again that an old hen bird is shot on the stubble, 

 which proves, upon dissection, to contain a perfectly 

 formed egg, shelled and fully developed, though pre- 

 sumably unfertilised. It would be rash to suggest 

 that eggs of this description are laid in a nest. The 

 probability of their being dropped at random amounts 

 almost to a certainty, and is supported by what we 

 know of the usages of other species. Thus, the 

 sheldrake and the starling frequently drop unfertile 

 eggs the former upon the salt marshes, the starling 

 upon the garden lawn. The significance of the fact 

 in the case of the partridge is sufficiently obvious. 

 It simply presages a case of early nesting, such as 

 actually occurs from time to time in different parts 

 of the country. 



