170 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



bird by the side of some standing* barley, and killed it. This was 

 on September 9th, 1874. He saw no more of the kind for the next 

 five or six years, when on September 20th, 1880, he shot a hen — a 

 solitary bird — in the very same field where he had killed the cock 

 six years before. Should this have been a pair, (and from the cir- 

 cumstance of finding them in the very same field, and although 

 shooting over the same ground regularly year by year, from never 

 seeing or hearing of any other instances of the occurrence of the 

 species, it would certainly appear to have been the case,) it shows 

 how tenaciously at times birds will stick to the spot that they have 

 once chosen as their home, notwithstanding many an adverse cir- 

 cumstance. The eggs of these birds are considerably larger than 

 those of the common Partridge, and are freckled and mottled with a 

 dull red colour. They differ also from the English bird in their 

 arboreal habits, often flying up into trees, or perching occasionally 

 on the hedge-row, or the corn stack, in which latter place they 

 not infrequently make their nests. 



Perdix Virginiana. " The Virginian Partridge," or " Colin." 

 This also is an imported species, but one which apparently cannot 

 hold its own amongst us as well as the last-named species, the " Red- 

 Leg," can, and when turned down is apt to wander far from its 

 intended home, and thus gets slaughtered inadvertently. In the 

 season of 1875-6 Mr. W. Hart informs me that he came across 

 sundry specimens of this bird in the neighbourhood of Christ- 

 church. There was a covey of fourteen of them, besides two or 

 three single birds. He killed three single birds whilst out Partridge 

 shooting, and has them now in his collection. I have not heard of 

 any others nearer home than that, and doubtless those mentioned 

 must have been turned down in the neighbourhood at some previous 

 period, though the covey bears testimony to their having bred in 

 the wild state, and that most successfully. Meyer mentions, I see, 

 that this bird differs from other cognate species by building a nest 

 for the receptiou of the eggs, in shape resembling that of a Willow 

 Wren with a hood to it, and that the eggs are ten or twelve in 

 number, which accurately corresponds with the number of the covey 

 above-mentioned. 



