66 FRANK SCHLEY'S PARTRIDGE AND PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



FIEST AND SECOND BEOOD. 



|HE natural habit of the Partridges when undisturbed 

 is to have two broods of young in a season. If the 

 Spring is early and favorable, they have the first 

 brood in the latter part of June, if otherwise, in 

 ly. The second brood they have usually in August, or 

 September, but it depends upon the season. The first brood, 

 when about one-third grown, is taken charge of by the 

 male, who is a very watchful and attentive guardian. 

 When there are two broods in a season, the second brood 

 unites with the first, and, if undisturbed, they will keep to- 

 gether under the guidance of their parents through win- 

 ter until spring. In Maryland, and I may say in the Mid- 

 dle and Northern States, especially in the thickly settled 

 and highly cultivated portions, the Partridges more fre- 

 quently have one. than two broods a season. This can be 

 accounted for. The warm weather in Maryland, and in 

 the Middle and Northern States, except in some instances, 

 is hardly long enough to allow the females sufficient time 

 to lay, and hatch their eggs, and have two broods in a sea- 

 son, before cold weather sets in, and, in the thickly settled 

 and highly cultivated portions, the nest and eggs are con- 

 stantly being trespassed upon and destroyed. So much so, 

 that the females in many instances are set back late in the 

 season with their first broods, and as* far as I am aware, 

 when these occurrences take place, the females content 

 themselves usually with having only one brood in the sea- 

 son. The young broods the sportsmen find in October and 

 November too small to shoot are more frequently the first 

 and only broods that have been hatched in the season, 

 than they are the second broods of the season, unless there 



