THE PARTRIDGE 



sexes, more especially at morn and even and during the 

 mating season. If heard later on in summer it is an 

 omen of disaster, telling that the brood has come to grief. 

 The food of this species consists of grain, tender shoots of 

 clover and other plants, blackberries and other small 

 wild fruits and berries, worms, insects, and larvae, snails, 

 and especially ants' eggs, the latter serving as the prin- 

 cipal fare of the chicks in many cases. The bird is most 

 active during the morning and evening, and in the hot 

 hours is very fond of basking on some open spot and 

 dusting itself. The covey sleeps on the fields, the birds 

 forming a ring, with heads turned outwards. The Part- 

 ridge is monogamous, and in March as a rule separates 

 into pairs for breeding purposes ; the old birds possibly 

 mate for life, but the young of the previous season unite 

 at that time. The nest is a mere hollow in some hedge- 

 bottom, amongst growing clover, grass, or grain, or under 

 a mass of herbage on rougher ground. It is lined with a 

 little dry grass or some dead leaves, and the eggs, from ten 

 to twenty according to the age of the hen, are uniform 

 olive brown. Occasionally a nearly white or pale green 

 specimen is seen in a clutch of the normal colour. The 

 broods and their parents keep together for the rest of the 

 season, grain-fields and turnip-patches being favourite 

 haunts. 



The adult male Partridge has the crown and nape 

 brown streaked with pale buff, the forehead and sides of 

 the head reddish chestnut ; the general colour of the rest 

 of the upper parts is slate-grey vermiculated or sprinkled 

 with black and barred with buff and chestnut ; the 

 wings are brown, the lesser and median coverts marked 

 on the inner web with chestnut and with buff shaft- 

 stripes ; the tail is chestnut ; the throat and neck are 

 chestnut ; the breast is grey, below which, and extend- 

 ing on to the abdomen, is a crescentic patch of dark 

 chestnut ; the remainder of the under parts is pale 



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