PARTRIDGE. GALLINA. PERDIX. 315 
ful, where agriculture has received the greatest encourage- 
ment, and attained the highest perfection. ‘The partridge 
begins to pair in February, and at this season obstinate con- 
tests occur between the males for the possession of the other 
sex. The female seldom produces her eggs before the latter 
part of May, and the greater portion of the young break the 
shell about the middle of July. 
The eggs are deposited on the ground in a shallow hole Eggs. 
scratched for the purpose, and under cover of a tuft of grass, 
whin-bush, or other brush-wood ; and not unfrequently in 
fields of clover, or amongst standing corn. ‘They amount to 
from twelve to twenty, of a pale wood-brown colour. 
Incubation, which occupies three weeks, is performed solely 
by the female, who sits very closely, and is with difficulty 
driven from her eggs. Montacu mentions an instance, in 
which a partridge, on the point of hatching, was taken, to- 
gether with her eggs, and carried in a hat to some dis- 
tance; she continued to sit, and brought out her young in 
confinement. Several other parallel cases are related, and 
some not very dissimilar have come under my own observa- 
tion. As soon as the young are excluded, the male bird 
joins the covey, and displays equal anxiety with the female 
for their support and defence. ‘There can be few persons 
conversant with country affairs who have not witnessed the 
confusion produced in a brood of young partridges by any 
sudden alarm; or who have not admired the stratagems to 
which the parent birds have recourse, in order to deceive, and 
draw off the intruder. ‘Their parental instinct, indeed, is not 
always confined to mere devices for engaging attention; but 
where there exists a probability of success, they will fight obsti- 
nately for the preservation of their young, as appears from many 
instances already narrated by different writers, and to which 
the following may be added, for the truth of which I can vouch. 
A person engaged in a field, not far from my residence, had 
his attention arrested by some objects on the ground, which, up- 
on approaching, he found to be two partridges, a male and fe- 
