37 
CHAPTER IV 
AS CONCERNING PARTRIDGE-NESTS 
Tuat May is, in ordinary seasons, the chief month 
in which our English partridges lay their eggs will be 
admitted by the majority of people. Yet, strange as 
the circumstance appears to be, it happens now and 
again that an old hen bird is shot on the stubble, 
which proves, upon dissection, to contain a perfectly 
formed egg, shelled and fully developed, though pre- 
sumably unfertilised. It would be rash to suggest 
that eggs of this description are laid ina nest. The 
probability of their being dropped at random amounts 
almost to a certainty, and is supported by what we 
know of the usages of other species. Thus, the 
sheldrake and the starling frequently drop unfertile 
eggs—the former upon the salt marshes, the starling 
upon the garden lawn. The significance of the fact 
in the case of the partridge is sufficiently obvious. 
It simply presages a case of early nesting, such as 
actually occurs from time to time in different parts 
of the country. 
