SHORTER-BILLED RUNNING BIRDS. 247 



Eggs.— About 10-20, olive-brown; 1-45 x 1-15 

 inch (plate 132). 



Nest. — Merely the depressed herbage among which 

 the eggs are deposited. 



This is the Gray Partridge of spprt, a short-necked, 

 full-bodied, stub-tailed bird, frequenting cultivated 

 lands. The nest is a hollow in the herbage at the 

 foot of a hedgerow, beside standing crops, or some 

 similar simple shelter. The birds are usually seen 

 in coveys of about half-a-dozen, or larger ones in 

 winter, in ploughed, stubble, and grass lands, but creep 

 about with lowered heads in so quiet a manner that 

 they might easily be mistaken for inanimate objects. 

 Indeed, their low, rounded backs and small, peeping 

 heads give them the appearance of so many tortoises, 

 and it is only when they rise with loudly whirring 

 wings that they offer a better view. The flight is 

 swift but heavy and dead-ahead, marked by skimming 

 on arched wings as they come to earth. Towards 

 dusk the peculiar creaky cry of the Partridge may 

 be heard, a two-syllabled, speech-like utterance dis- 

 tantly resembling the cry of the Lapwing, the first 

 syllable short, the second long and lower in pitch, 

 and of a peevish, complaining quality. While deliver- 

 ing it the cock -bird stands bolt -upright in the 

 open, and soon his companions are seen running 

 out cautiously to join him ; for all sleep together in 

 the open, 



RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE— 14 inches. Upper parts 

 ruddy-ash ; throat white, encircled by a black line ; no 

 horse-shoe patch on the breast ; red-legged and red- 

 billed. A bird of south-eastern England, inhabiting 

 the drier and wilder tracts. 



