COMMON PARTRIDGE. 371 



form ; the first three feathers shorter than the fourth or fifth, which are the long- 

 est in the wing. Tail, of fourteen to eighteen feathers, short. Feet, with three 

 toes in front, and one behind, those in front united by a membrane as far as the 

 first articulation. 



THE enlarged demands of an increasing population, tempt- 

 ing prices in seasons of scarcity, or the progress of science 

 unfolding the nature of soils, have each in turn induced the 

 cultivation of various tracts of ground unploughed before ; 

 and as the labours of the agriculturists encroach upon the 

 boundaries of the moor, the Grouse retires, and the Par- 

 tridge takes its place upon the land : the districts best cul- 

 tivated, and producing the most corn, frequently also pro- 

 ducing the greatest number of Partridges. 



Of a bird so universally known, little that is new can be 

 said ; with its appearance and its habits almost all are fami- 

 liar. These birds pair in February ; but seldom begin to 

 lay eggs till towards the end of April or the beginning of 

 May : a slight depression in the ground, with a few dead 

 leaves or dried grass bents scratched together, serves for a 

 nest ; and the place chosen is sometimes only a few yards 

 from a public footpath. Occasionally, also, the nest of a 

 Partridge is found in a situation the least likely to be occu- 

 pied by a bird so decidedly terrestrial in its habits. In 

 Daniel's Rural Sports, it is recorded that a Partridge made 

 her nest on the top of an oak pollard ; and this tree had one 

 end of the bars of a stile, where there was a foot-path, fas- 

 tened into it, and by the passengers going over the stile 

 before she sat close, she was disturbed, and first discovered. 

 She there hatched sixteen eggs ; and her brood, scrambling 

 down the short and rough boughs which grew out all round 

 from the trunk of the tree, reached the ground in safety. 

 The eggs of the Partridge are, however, mostly deposited 

 among brushwood or long grass, or in fields of clover and 

 standing corn ; they are of a uniform olive brown colour, 



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