THE GREY PARTRIDGE 



137 



time previous to the close of the shooting season. 

 About the fourth week in April partridges begin to lay 

 their eggs in our southern counties ; further north and 

 in elevated situations May is frequently well advanced 

 before their eggs may be discovered. Incubation lasts 

 twenty-one days, and in forward situations young 

 partridges are hatched out soon after the middle of 

 June ; from Midsummer Day to the end of the month 



GREY AND RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGES. 



being the principal hatching-out time. Partridges are 

 prolific layers, and one hen bird will lay from twelve to 

 twenty eggs. Two hens sometimes lay in one nest, in 

 which event as many as thirty eggs, or more, have been 

 noticed. Instances are by no means rare in which the 

 eggs of grey and red-legged partridges, as also the eggs 

 of partridge and of pheasant, have been found in one 

 nest. 



Thousands of partridges, chiefly imported from Hun- 

 gary, have been turned down upon English manors 

 within recent years. These Hungarian birds do not 



