50 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



a monogamous species, and may even very probably pair for life, 

 although the old cocks are often very pugnacious and fight freely 

 with the younger birds. The Partridge goes to nest in England 

 about the beginning of May, but in Scotland it is nearly a month 

 later. The female makes a scanty nest in a dry hedge bottom 

 or a ditch, amongst growing corn or clover, or dense herbage 

 on rougher ground, often in places most exposed, and in some 

 instances in very curious situations. For instance, I have known 

 it bring off a brood from the top of a bean-stack. The nest 

 is simply a hollow scratched out in the ground and lined with 

 a few bits of withered herbage. The eggs vary, according to 

 the age of the hen, from ten to fifteen or twenty in number, 

 although occasionally much larger clutches are found which 

 may be the produce of several females. A nest containing 

 thirty-three eggs is on record, twenty-three of which hatched 

 safely, and the chicks got away with their parents. The eggs 

 are uniform pale olive-brown, exactly similar to those of the 

 Pheasant ; white and pale green varieties are sometimes met 

 with. They measure on an average i'4 inch in length by its 

 inch in breadth. Although the male Partridge keeps close and 

 constant watch over his mate and nest, the female incubates the 

 eggs, which usually take from twenty-one to twenty-four days to 

 hatch. As soon as the brood are out both parents tend them, 

 and are most solicitous for their safety, and boldly defend them 

 from predaceous creatures. The female is a close sitter, and 

 covers her eggs when leaving her nest voluntarily. Only one 

 brood is reared in the year, and I am of opinion that if the first 

 clutch of eggs is destroyed no others are laid that season. If 

 the birds continue to call into June and July, it is a bad omen, 

 and a sure sign that the nests have been unfortunate. 



Diagnostic Characters. — Ferdix, with the horse-shoe mark 

 on the belly dark chestnut, and with the wing averaging 6 inches 

 in length. Length, 12 to 13 inches. Has been known to 

 hybridise with the Red-legged Partridge. Subject to considerable 

 local variation (especially in young), and it is said that in some 

 districts the tendency to develope a white instead of a chestnut 

 horse-shoe on the belly is increasing. 



