RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 221 
the occurrence of but one of these birds in the neighbourhood 
of Lilford, Northamptonshire, which, as he observes, ‘con- 
sidering its abundance in Norfolk and Suffolk, is rather a 
curious circumstance.’ One was shot near Anglesea Abbey, 
Cambridgeshire, on the 11th. of September, 1821; and others 
have been met with in that county. A pair in 1835 on the 
Chiltern Hills, near Stokenchurch, Oxfordshire, where a covey 
of six were found on the 2Ist. of September, 1848, by Mr. 
Willoughby Beauchamp. 
In Orkney several were introduced in late ema 
They frequent cultivated grounds, and especially hilly parts 
where bushes and copsewood abound, but seem to give a 
preference to heaths, commons, and: sther waste lands. 
They are good, but not nearly so good to eat as the native 
species. They have been known to breed in .confinement. 
The male birds frequently fight in the spring of the year. 
They run very fast, and are not easily put up; and in 
those parts of the country where they have become naturalized, 
thoy have had the effect, from some cause or other, of 
banishing the indigenous Partridge. They perch at times in 
trees, and, if convenient, on a hedge, gate, or rail. 
Their dietary is composed of seeds, grain, clover, and other 
vegetables, beetles, flies, and other insects, ants, and their 
eggs, spiders, caterpillars, and small snails, and they scratch 
on the ground after the manner of the other birds of this 
class. 
The note is likened to the syllables ‘cokileke,’ and is often 
heard in the spring. 
The nest is made of grass and a few feathers of the bird 
itself, and is placed among corn, grass, or clover, or near a 
bush. 
Mr. Jesse says that a clergyman, in the county of Norfolk, 
found the nest in the thatch of a hayrick, and informed him 
that such is no unfrequent occurrence. Other similar instances 
are mentioned. 
The eggs are usually from ten to twelve in number: as 
many as eighteen have been sometimes found. They are of 
a reddish yellow-white colour, spotted and speckled with © 
reddish brown. The young leave the nest soon after being 
hatched. The male takes no part in the incubation of the 
egos, and leaves the care of the brood to their mother till 
they are half grown, when he returns to them, and continues 
with them till the following spring. 
