COURSING, ETC, 255 



of January, they are found in pairs, but then 

 if the cold weather returns they again form 

 in covies. The hen partridge lays her eggs 

 during the whole month of May and the be- 

 ginning of June ; her nest is made upon the 

 ground, and consists only of a few blades of 

 grass constructed without art, either at the 

 edge of a corn-field, in a meadow, heath, 

 &c. She lays from fourteen to twenty-two 

 eggs, the earliest birds begin to fly towards 

 the latter end of June. From this state of 

 growth their plumage undergoes a variety of 

 changes, until the period arrives when the 

 red and blackish feathers begin to form the 

 horse-shoe upon the breast, which is very 

 conspicuous on the male, but less distin- 

 guishable on females. This mark takes 

 place about the beginning or the middle of 

 October, and it is not until that is perfect 

 that they can be properly called partridges. 



In the next place it will be proper to con- 

 sider their haunts, which are not certain 

 like the pheasant's, but various : any covert 

 Z 2 



