PARTRIDGES. 109 



Barbata, which is plentiful in the north of China and south 

 Siberia. 



Partridges are believed to pair for life, and both parents 

 are most assiduous in their attention to their young. In 

 England, as a rule, there are from 12 to 20 eggs per nest. 

 More than this have been frequently found, but on such 

 occasions it is believed that two hens are laying in the same 

 nest. None of the partridges seem to care for life in the 

 woods. The Bob White loves to be near wooded stretches 

 of land, but he appears to find his living rather on their 

 borders than in them. The tree and bamboo partridges 

 like cover, but it is the cover of the jungle rather than of the 

 forest. They feed, as pheasants do, morning and evening. 

 About noon they like to be near water for their temperate 

 sip, after which a sunny bank with feathery grass is a great 

 attraction for the siesta which so many birds love. It is this 

 fact which makesafternoon shooting so much more productive 

 than that of the morn. I once saw a pointer draw so close 

 to a drowsy partridge that he finally made a dash and secured 

 herwithout a shot's being fired, the bird being in perfecthealth 

 and feather. They are fully alive, however, to all dangers 

 when their little ones need protection. Then woe betide 

 crow, or cat, or even hawk which ventures near. 



I may, perhaps, be pardoned for adding one more to the 

 stories of bird affection when young are endangered. The 

 incident happened to myself in 1902 when I was on leave in 

 England. I was sauntering along a green country lane in 

 Cheshire one summer day, when from the long grass by the 

 side of the track there went up with a whirr two partridges. 

 A moment after, the female was back over the hedge and on 

 the path with all the appearance of having a broken wing! 

 The deception was, however, a little "too thin" for so old a 

 bird as myself, and instead of trying to catch the wily dame, 

 I stood and watched her. She had made a lame attempt at 

 running from me, but this waiting and watching brought her 

 back. Two or three times she came near and retired, her 

 wing all the while trailing on the ground. Then, to see what 

 she would do, I make great pretence at looking for the young 

 ones in the grass. This was too much. She came running 

 up almost to my feet, and if there ever were a mute appeal 

 to human being to desist from evil, it was made then. At 

 this juncture the cock-bird returned. He perhaps would 

 have attacked, if the searching had been persisted in, for 

 there are many instances known of this having been done. 

 But I had caused alarm enough and gave up the pretended 

 attempt after the young to make a more real one after the 

 parents. This, of course, was what they wanted, and after 

 a run of twenty or thirty yards they both took wing and were 



