110 PARTRIDGES 



The partridge is allowed to sit for one 

 week on the dummies, after which time 

 she is willing to mother any chicks that 

 may hatch. A batch of chipped eggs are 

 then taken from the coops or the in- 

 cubator, carried to the nest in a basket of 

 warm bran, and substituted for the 

 dummies. In a few hours the mother 

 will have hatched and taken off the brood, 

 thus evading all the dangers of the last 

 two days of incubation, which, as is well 

 known, is just the time that foxes do 

 most mischief. For then the scent, which 

 the sitting bird has been able to suppress 

 since incubation commenced, returns to 

 the nest (due perhaps to the chicks in the 

 eggs), rendering it an easy prey to any 

 passing * varmint/ 



Besides the main object of this system, 

 its adoption is attended by several minor 

 advantages. A constant change of blood 



with them ; but now many excellent imitations of the 

 natural egg are on the market. Mr. Maiden, Home, 

 Horley, supplies an egg which, were it not for the small 

 hole purposely left open at one end, would be almost in- 

 distinguishable from the genuine article. 



