102 
THE COMMON PARTIUDGE. 
Scotland supplies many of the more northern mar- 
kets with this game. 
Very early in spring — the first mild days even 
of February — the Partridges have paired, and each 
couple may he found, near the part selected for their 
summer abode, long before the actual preparations 
for incubation have commenced. These are begun at 
a later period than generally imagined, and even in 
the beginning of September, particularly in the 
wilder districts, the young are not more than half 
grown. The nest is formed, or rather the spot 
where the eggs arc to be deposited, is scraped out 
in some ready made hollow or furrow, or placed 
under cover of a tuft of grass, and from twelve to 
twenty eggs are deposited. This mode of nidi- 
fication prevails through the whole genus. No 
nest is made, and often no great care of conceal- 
ment is displayed. In cultivated countries, the 
young grasses and corns are their favourite breeding 
places, the former often fatal, from the hay-harvest 
having commenced before the brood is hatched. 
The choice of a place of security for their eggs is 
not always the same, for Montague mentions a pair 
which successively selected the top of an old pol- 
lard oak, and Mr. Selby writes of having known 
several parallel cases. It is a singular trait in the 
habits of many birds, that those of a wild nature 
will often select the most frequented parts for their 
nests. Both Partridges and Pheasants are often 
discovered with the nest placed within two or three 
feet of a highway or footpath, where there is a 
