MORE ABOUT GAME-BIRDS. 121 



cause their general habits and haunts are so 

 different. 



The nest of the red-legged partridge, which is 

 but a slightly constructed affair, is made on the 

 ground, under cover of grass, corn, or tangle; and 

 her eggs, varying in number from ten to fifteen, are 

 hard-shelled, their ground colouring being cream, 

 thickly spotted with reddish brown. 



I have seen it stated that this bird does not take 

 long nights, and is not migratory. If this be true, 

 how can the circumstance be explained of large 

 coveys of these very birds arriving from seawards 

 to drop down exhausted on lonely bits of foreshore, 

 covered with sandhills and bents, some of the poor 

 weary creatures actually falling, dead-beat, in the 

 water ? This took place on a portion of our coast, 

 where the most direct line to the Continental shore 

 coincides exactly with as much as had been seen 

 of their flight-line. All who have noticed how 

 partridges fly know that they go as direct as they 

 can. Other game-birds have visited us from the 

 Continent; why not therefore the red-legged par- 

 tridge ? 



If the tiny golden-crested wren crosses the North 



