264 



SCRAPERS, OB POULTRY TRIBE. 



CHAPTER IV. 



The COMMON PAKTBIDGTE Its food and hatching-time 

 Tame Partridges Two anecdotes illustrative of attachment 

 in these birds The Partridge a friend to the farmer A 

 family of Partridges Instinct and affection of parent birds 

 Hill Partridges Advice to sportsmen The Red-legged 

 Partridge Reasons for the sportsman's dislike to this bird. 



THE COMMON PARTRIDGE is so well known that little 

 new can be said about it, as we are all familiar 

 with its appearance and habits. It is abundant 

 in all cultivated parts of Great Britain, but 

 seldom found at a distance from arable land, 

 which is its favourite haunt. It feeds on grain, 

 seeds, and insects, and especially on the eggs and 

 larvae of ants. It is the most prolific of all the 

 wild gallinaceous birds, the eggs being often as 

 many as twenty, and never fewer than twelve. 

 The period of hatching is twenty-one days, and 

 the grand hatching-time in the south of England 

 is from the 20th of June to the end of that month. 

 Among our native game-birds there is not one 

 more essentially a wild creature than this ; and 

 yet there is none whose increase and welfare have 



