216 PAETEIDGE. 



they are mostly concealed "by the standing corn, and in the 

 autumn in any other cover, and along hedges and ditches, 

 and in osier beds, where there are any, and other situations. 

 Some are said to subsist on heath and whortleberries in places 

 where these grow, and to acquire the flavour of Grouse: they 

 drink but little. 



The call of the Partridge, 'chicurr, chicurrr,' is heard early 

 in the spring, and even in the winter months, at the close 

 of day, a summons together after separation; I have heard 

 it on the 7th. of this present December, 1853, after a hard 

 white frost still unthawed in the shade. It is especially 

 frequent in the still summer evenings, when the silence is 

 pleasingly broken in upon by it, or the 'droning flight' of 

 the beetle, or some other country sound, equally speaking to 

 the listening ear of happy rural life. They have a note of 

 caution and warning, on hearing which the young steal away 

 to the nearest place of security, and there remain concealed 

 till a cluck from the dam announces that the danger has 

 disappeared. 



These birds begin to pair very early, even so soon, as has 

 been observed, as the 3rd. of February in Yorkshire, and by 

 the 1st. elsewhere; usually between that date and the 14th., 

 and are then found in ploughed and clover fields. At those 

 times there are often fierce combats between the male birds. 

 Some few never pair at all, perhaps for want of mates. The 

 young of more than one nest sometimes join together in 

 coveys. It is said that they remain as long as three weeks 

 in the neighbourhood where they think of making their nest, 

 apprehensive of choosing a dangerous site, and if the one 

 first selected appears to be such, they fix themselves somewhere 

 else. 



The nest is only a few straws placed in a mere hollow 

 scratched in the earth, under the shelter perhaps of some 

 tuft, generally in open grass and other fields, among peas, 

 corn, weeds, or herbage, at the foot of a tree or bush, or 

 by a post, but at times in a small plantation, among shrubs, 

 under a hedgerow, even by the road-side, and on the moors 

 in the vicinity of cultivated land; sometimes in holes of 

 decayed trees, as much as three or four feet from the ground, 

 and even on the top of hay-stacks; I have been told of a 

 nest placed in this situation, the coveys hatched, and safely 

 reared. A brace of Partridges have been known, their own 

 nest having been destroyed, to take up with the nest and 



