ACROSS THE OPEN FIELDS AND DOWNS. 79 



ctnered). The Partridge is too well known to 

 need description here ; the brown birds that rise in 

 startled coveys from the stubbles and the turnips 

 with whirring wing, being familiar to every 

 wanderer across the fields. The Partridge is 

 common enough wherever he is preserved and 

 protected by man, although he flourishes best 

 on dry soils, and in districts where the fields are 

 not too large and the hedges furnish cover. 

 Unlike so many Game Birds, the Partridge is 

 monogamous ; indeed, I am of opinion that this 

 bird pairs for life. Very early in the year the 

 coveys or rather, what is left of them begin to 

 separate. In March and April the love-call of 

 the male a curious laughing cry, something like 

 kirr-rr-ric sounds incessantly from the fields, 

 and a week or so later (in May on an average) 

 the female goes to nest. This scarcely deserves 

 the name, for it is only a hollow lined with a few 

 withered leaves and a little dry grass, frequently 

 arranged in a dry ditch below the hedgerows, in 

 the hedge bottoms, or often enough amongst the 

 meadow grass and the growing corn. Sometimes 

 it is made in the most frequented situations, by 

 the side of a footpath or near a gateway as if 

 the bird were fully conscious of the protection it 

 received from man. Ten to twenty eggs are 

 laid in this rude nest, uniform olive-brown in 

 colour. The Partridge sits closely enough, often 

 allowing herself to be taken in the hand rather 

 than desert her charge ; and when she voluntarily 

 leaves her nest she is careful to cover her eggs 

 with bits of vegetation to hide them from the 

 prying eyes of enemies. Both birds assist in 

 bringing up the brood, and the young chicks, able 



