PAftTRtDGE. 133 



dfe found in pairs as early as January ; should, how- 

 ever, the weather afterwards prove severe, they again 

 assemble in numbers, which by sportsmen are called 

 packs. 



Their nest consists of a few blades of withered grass 

 and leaves, constructed without art, and chiefly found 

 in corn-fields, amongst clover, long grass, or in the 

 bottoms of hedges. There is an instance related, in 

 the Animal Biography, of a partridge, in the year 

 1788, forming her nest, and hatching sixteen eggs, 

 on the top of a pollard oak tree, on a farm called 

 Lion Hall, in Essex, belonging to Colonel Hawker. 

 We are told that when the brood were hatched, they 

 scrambled down the short and rough boughs, which 

 grew out all round from the trunk of the tree, and 

 reached the ground in safety ! 



The female lays from thirteen to twenty eggs, and 

 sometimes more, about the size of a pigeon's, but 

 more obtuse, and of a greyish colour. The period of 

 incubation is three weeks ; and so closely do they sit 

 on their eggs, particularly when near hatching, that 

 frequent instances have occurred of partridges being 

 cut in two by a scythe. 



The great hatch is about the first ten days in June, 

 and the earliest birds begin to fly towards the latter 

 end of that month. Should a partridge's nest be de- 

 stroyed, she generally lays again ; and this brood, 

 which is termed by sportsmen clacking, is not game 

 till October. These birds are always weak, and are 

 frequently destroyed by the rigours of winter. 



