76 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



Great will be his satisfaction if the first egg should 



happen to be an English bird's. The same friendly 



rivalry exists between neighbouring keepers 



The as to who shall find the first partridge 



men's h e %% as with the first Pheasant's egg. Not 

 Nests. until May will the partridges' laying 

 season be in full swing. English part- 

 ridges nest always on the ground, but Frenchmen 

 sometimes nest so far aloft as on the top of a 

 straw-rick. So they escape the fox, which tears 

 the English birds off their nests on all sides. 

 There is an idea in the heads of country folk 

 that the French partridge habitually deserts her 

 first clutch of eggs without cause. No doubt this 

 delusion has arisen from the forsaken appearance of 

 the birds' nests and eggs ; when stained by soil, the 

 eggs look decidedly stale. While the mother bird 

 never deserts her nest without good cause, she is in 

 no hurry about nesting ; and there are often long 

 intervals between the laying of the first egg, the com- 

 pletion of the clutch, and the beginning of sitting 

 operations. We have heard of a case where this 

 interval was one of six weeks. Yet a full brood was 

 hatched. 



French partridges have a good deal in common 

 with guinea-fowls. The call which members of a 

 covey of Frenchmen make to each other bears the 

 strongest resemblance to the guinea-fowl's " Go-back, 

 go-back." They are alike in making a deep " scrape " 

 in the soil for their nest, which is complete when 



