a few feathers, or a few leaves, to a tolerably substantial padnest
of grass and leaves. It is usually placed on the ground,
under some large clod in a ploughed field, under a bush, or in
a tuft of grass, but is sometimes fixed in the lower branches
of some dense thorny shrub as much as three feet from the
ground. Typically I should say the nest was a shallow depression
well concealed under a bush or in a large tuft of high
grass, and more or less neatly and thickly lined with grass.
I have never found more than nine eggs, and I have more
than a dozen notes of finding only six, seven, or eight much-incubated
eggs.
Captain G. F. L. Marshall writes from the Saharanpur
district:—
" The Grey Partridge breeds here from March till May.
I saw a covey of young birds, about a week old, about
the middle of April; again, on 7th April, I found seven fresh
eggs, on the 23rd April I found eight slightly-set eggs, and
on the 17th May I again found seven slightly-set eggs. In
one case, the eggs were laid on a rough platform of grass and
leaves in the middle of a tuft of high reed grass about eighteen
inches from the ground ; in a second, the eggs were on the
ground at the foot of a tuft of grass ; and in the third case,
the eggs were in a cup-shaped hollow sunk in the ground, lined
very neatly with feathers and soft leaves, in the middle of
a little korounda bush which was growing on the top of a tiny
mound."
Mr. A. Anderson says :—
" The Grey Partridge lays from six to nine eggs in April and
May ; the eggs are deposited in a hollow, which the bird scrapes
out, most generally under the shelter of a clump of scrub jungle,
and the standing grass is trodden down, which does for a nest
lining.
" On the 4th April 1871, when out coursing on the cliur lands
opposite the Station of Fatehgarh, I flushed a 'Grey'which
was feeding in an open field. It struck me at once that this
was the male, and that the female must be sitting somewhere,
because these birds invariably go in pairs, and this was their
breeding season. FORMING a line with my coolies, I beat every
conceivable bit of cover (there was not a crop standing for miles),
including a few clumps of Sarpat grass which grew in the form
of a hedge. Giving it up as a bad job, I rode alongside of this
grass hedge (it had been charred), and looking down into the
centre of each clump, soon discovered what at first appeared
a hare in her form, but which, on closer inspection, proved to
be the Hen Partridge. The grass was again well beaten, and,
as a last resort, handfuls of earth and small stones were showered
in on her from above, but without avail. Seeing how futile
were all my efforts to flush the Partridge, I decided on capturing
her on her nest, which was effected by my horse-cloth-
THE GREY PARTRIDGE. 57
ing being placed over the clump, and the coolies making a
rattling noise round the bottom of the grass, which eventually
had the effect of making her rise perpendicularly. The nest
was carefully fenced in with grass-stocks of the thickness
of an ordinary cane, so that ingress and egress for so big a
bird must have been a matter of no little difficulty. A portion
of the stalks having been cut away, disclosed nine eggs ;
eight were hard-set, the ninth was abnormally small, and quite
fresh"
Capt. Butler remarks :—
" The Grey Partridge breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa
in February, March and April, and again in August, September,
and October, in all of which months I have found nests.
" The following are a few of the dates upon which I have
taken nests :—
6lh February 1S75 ... A nest containing ... 6 fresh eggs
9th March 1876 ... Do. ... 7 do.
28th April 1876 ... Do. ... 5 eggs incubated.
,, „ ... Do. ... 4 do.
29th ,, ... Do. ... 5 slightly incubated.
6th August 1876 ... Do. ... 7 fresh eggs.
10th ,, ... Do. ... 6 do.
9th September 1876 ... Do. ... 5 do.
15th October 1876 ... Do. ... 6 do.
" In almost every one of the above instances the nest was
placed either in or under a thick tussock of grass."
The eggs vary in shape from slightly elongated ovals, a good
deal pointed towards one end, to broad peg-tops, but an intermediate
form is the most common. The shells are fine and
glossy, and the eggs average decidedly smaller than those
of our Common English Partridge. Their colouring, too, is of
an entirely different type, and is the same as that of the eggs
of the Bush Quails, while the English Partridge in this respect
more resembles those of the Francolins. The eggs are
white, more or less tinged with café au lait colour, this tinge
varying much in depth and intensity, probably (though I have
not accurately noted the fact) chiefly according to the stage
of incuba ion at which they are procured. The eggs are spotless,
but are often, especially the paler-coloured ones, a good deal
soiled and stained. Not unfrcquently they exhibit small raised
chalky patches, looking like drops of thick whitewash.
In size the eggs vary from V2 to i'42 in length, and in
breadth from 0'95 to I ' I 2 ; but the average of fifty-four eggs
is 1-3 by 1-03.
T H E MALES average somewhat larger than the females, and
have, moreover, a very sharp spur (in one specimen before me
0-67 in length) on each leg; indeed, specimens are occasionally
met with in captivity (I have never seen one such wild) with
two spurs on each leg.