EED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 221 



the occurrence of but one of these birds in the neighbourhood 

 of Lilford, Northamptonshire, which, as he observes, 'con- 

 sidering its abundance in Norfolk and Suffolk, is rather a 

 curious circumstance.' One was shot near Anglesea Abbey, 

 Cambridgeshire, on the llth. of September, 1821; and others 

 have been met with in that county. A pair in 1835 on the 

 Chiltern Hills, near Stokenchurch, Oxfordshire, where a covey 

 of six were found on the 21st. of September, 1848, by Mr. 

 Willoughby Beauchamp. 



In Orkney- several were introduced in late years. 



They frequent cultivated grounds, and especially hilly parts 

 where bushes and copsewood abound, but seem to give a 

 preference to heaths, commons, and other waste lands. 



They are good, but not nearly so good to eat as the native 

 species. They have been known to breed in confinement. 

 The male birds frequently fight in the spring of the year. 



They run very fast, and are not easily put up; and in 

 those parts of the country where they have become naturalized, 

 they have had the effect, from some cause or other, of 

 banishing the indigenous Partridge. They perch at times in 

 trees, and, if convenient, on a hedge, gate, or rail. 



Their dietary is composed of seeds, grain, clover, and other 

 vegetables, beetles, flies, and other insects, ants, and their 

 eggs, spiders, caterpillars, and small snails, and they scratch 

 on the ground after the manner of the other birds of this 

 class. 



The note is likened to the syllables 'cokileke,' and is often 

 heard in the spring. 



The nest is made of grass and a few feathers of the bird 

 itself, and is placed among corn, grass, or clover, or near a 

 bush. 



Mr. Jesse says that a clergyman, in the county of Norfolk, 

 found the nest in the thatch of a hayrick, and informed him 

 that such is no unfrequent occurrence. Other similar instances 

 are mentioned. 



The eggs are usually from ten to twelve in number: as 

 many as eighteen have been sometimes found. They are of 

 a reddish yellow-white colour, spotted and speckled with 

 reddish brown. The young leave the nest soon after being 

 hatched. The male takes no part in the incubation of the 

 eggs, and leaves the care of the brood to their mother till 

 they are half grown, when he returns to them, and continues 

 with them till the following spring. 



