﻿PARTRIDGE. 7 6 3 



that it was flocks of the Red Partridge, rather than of thefe, that 

 were kept tame in fome of the iflands of the Mediterranean* ; 

 and indeed this feems manifeft from the impoffibility of propa- 

 gating the fpecies in a confined ftate, as we are obliged to fet 

 the eggs under a Hen, who will rear them as her own chickens ; 

 of which I have feen twenty- five at one hatch. Partridges pair 

 early in fpring, and frequent corn-fields and rich paftures : feed 

 on green corn and other plants, as well as infefts of all kinds; 

 and will eat all kinds of grain -, but the moft efteemed food is . 

 ants eggs, and without thefe the young, hatched under them, will 

 not be readily brought up. The female lays her eggs on the 

 ground, making no neft, only fcraping together a few dry leaves, 

 or fibres, in fome hollow of the ground. The eggs are com- 

 monly from fifteen to eighteen j- in number, of a greenifli grey co- 

 lour. The female fits three weeks; and the young run as foon 

 as hatched, often with part of the fhell flicking to their heads. 

 They breed in this climate but once in a year. Olina fixes their 

 life at twelve or fifteen years. 



La Perdrix grife blanche, Brif. orn. i. p* 223. A. — Buf. otf. ii. p. 415. — . "" . 



Frijcb. p. 115. 



npHIS is a mere variety of the laft. The general colour of the Description. 

 plumage grey, with the fame markings, but fainter; but 



* Willughby tells us of " a certain Sufex man that had, by his induftry, made 

 " a covey of Partridges fo tame, that he drave them before him, upon a wager, 

 " out of that county to London, though they were abfolutely free, and had their 

 " wings grown." — Orn. p. 167. 



+ As far as twenty-five. — Bijt, des oif. 



jEi what 



