166 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



sportsman as late as the middle of October, or 

 even in November. In fact, so many accidental 

 irregularities occur in the period of incubation, 

 that the farmer will often tell you, that he has 

 seen broods of unfledged birds in his first crop 

 of grass, in his oats, in his wheat, in his corn 

 and, last of all, in his buckwheat. We were 

 long inclined to the popular belief, that as a 

 law of her instinct, the partridge reared two 

 broods in a season, but later observations have 

 inclined us to correct our opinion. These 

 inquiries were principally made in a section of 

 the country where we have resided for years, 

 and shot over for many successive seasons, a sec- 

 tion where partridges are comparatively scarce, 

 and which we believe, to be better suited for the 

 purposes of investigation, than a region where 

 they are unusually abundant. In the latter 

 locality, so many late broods, consequent upon 

 the irregularities we have already noticed, will 

 always be met with in the shooting season, 

 that distinct broods will be confounded together 

 by sportsmen as the progeny of one pair of old 

 birds, especially when from accident or design, 

 one or more of these coveys of young birds have 

 been deprived of the fostering care of a parent. 

 In various sections of the Middle States, especi- 



