GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



217 



tlie earth : it is formed of leaves and fine dry grass, is of a circular form, and covered above, with an 

 opening at the side. The eggs are of a pure white, and rather sharp at the smaller end. Both 

 parents assist in hatching the eggs. When the young are freed from the shell they leave the nest, 

 and are led in search of food by their mother, who shelters them with most assiduous care. If 

 danger threatens, she throws herself across the path of the intruder, beating the ground with her 

 wings as if severely wounded, and uttering notes of alarm to decoy the stranger into pursuit of herself, 

 and give warning to her young to conceal themselves in the high grass till the danger is past, when, 

 having allured her pursuer to a distance, she returns, and leads them safe home. The American 

 Partridge usually rears only one brood in the year, but should this be destroyed she immediately 



THE VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE [Ortyx I'irgiriiamil). ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE. 



prepares another nest, and even should mischance befall this also, a third batch of eggs is laid. This 

 Partridge has been occasionally employed to hatch the eggs of the Domestic Hen. 



"A friend of mine," says Wilson, "informs me, that of several hens' eggs, which he substituted 

 for those of the Partridge, she brought out the whole ; and that for several weeks he occasionally 

 surprised her in various parts of the plantations, with her broods of chickens, on which occasions she 

 exhibited much alarm, and practised her usual manoeuvres for their preservation. Even after they 

 were considerably grown and larger than the Partridge herself, she continued to lead them about ; but 

 though their notes or call were those of common chickens, their manners had all the shyness, 

 timidity, and alarm of young Partridges : they ran with great rapidity, and squatted in the grass 

 exactly after the manner of the Partridge. Soon after this they disappeared, having probably been 

 destroyed." 



In summer the food of tliese birds consists of insects, berries, and gra'n, and in the autumn they 

 revel in the fields of buckwheat and Indian com. When winter comes, and their supplies have 

 disappeared, those in the northern districts commence their southward course, and many perish during 

 VOL. HI. — 107 



