80 PARTRIDGE.
to have perished from the starvation of cold or hunger. In the
Bummer they arc mostly concealed by the standing corn, and in the
autumn in any other cover, and along hedges and ditches, and in
osier beds, where there arc any, and other situations. Some are said
to subsist on heath and whortleberries in places where these grow,
and to acquire the flavour of Grouse: they drink but little.
The call of the Partridge, 'chicurr, chicurrr,' is heard early in the
spring, and even in the winter months, at the close of day, a summons
together after separation: T have heard it the 7th. of December, 1853,
after a hard white frost still unthawed in the shade. It is especially
frequenl in the still summer evenings, when the silence is pleasingly
broken in upon by it, or the ' d r o n i n g flight' of the beetle, or some
other country sound, equally speaking to the listening car of happy
rural life. They have a note of caution and warning, on hearing which
the young steal away to the nearest place of security, and there remain
concealed till a cluck from the dam announces that the danger has
disappeared.
These birds begin to pair very early, even so soon, as has been
observed, as the 3rd, of F e b r u a r y in Yorkshire, and by the 1st. elsewhere;
usually between that date and the 14th., and they are then
found in ploughed and clover fields. At those times there are often
fierce combats between the male birds. Some few never pair at all,
pet'liaps lor want of mates. The young of more than one nest, sometimes
join together in coveys. It is said that they remain as long as
three weeks in the neighbourhood where they think of making their
nest, apprehensive of choosing a dangerous site, and if the one first
selected appears to be such, they fix themselves somewhere else.
The nest is only a few straws placed in a mere hollow scratched
in the earth, under the shelter perhaps of some tuft, generally in open
grass and other fields, among peas, corn, weeds, clover, or herbage,
at the foot of a tree or bush, or by a post, but at times in a small
plantation, among shrubs or brushwood, under a hedgerow, even by
a foot-path or the road-side, and on the moors in the vicinity of cult
h u l e d hind; sometimes in holes of decayed trees, as much as three
or four feet from the ground, and even on the top of hay-stacks:
I have been told of a nest placed in this situation, the coveys hatched,
and safely reared. Another I have heard of under the post of a
hand-gate, which was turned whenever passengers went backwards
and forwards through it. In the ' R u r a l Sports' it is recorded that
a pair built on the top of a pollard oak, to which one end of a stile
"was fixed which people used to be going over, but the young, sixteen
in number, were safely hatched, and clambered down the short boughs
PARTRIDGE. 31
which sprouted from the tree. A brace of Partridges have been known,
their own nest having been destroyed, to take up with the nest and
eggs of a pair of Pheasants, the hen of which had been killed, on
the estate of Colonel Burgoyne, in Essex. The hen bird alone sits,
the male keeping watch, and when the young are hatched he joins
the covey, and protects and feeds them with the dam.
The eggs, which arc of a pale greenish brown colour, are laid towards
the end of April, in May, or the beginning of J u n e , and are usually
ten or twelve in number, but sometimes as many as fifteen, eighteen,
or even twenty. The 'Norfolk News' mentions a nest hatched at
Ditchingham between the 13th. and 18th. of April, 1851. Twenty-two
eggs are recorded to have been found in one nest, twenty-eight in
another, and thirty-one in another, two hen birds having occupied the
same one, and in the former instance the cock bird gathered half of
the united family under his wings, the pair sitting side by side, but
looking different ways. In two other instances thirty-three eggs are
recorded as having been found in one nest, but there is little doubt
that they were contributed by more than one bird. In one of these
twentv-three young were hatched and went off, and four of the other
eggs had live birds in them. The young leave the nest almost as soon
as they are hatched. Incubation lasts about twenty-one days, beginning
usually in June. 'A Partridge's nest was found at Thisllewood,
Cumberland, the other day, containing seventeen Partridge's eggs and
six common hen's eggs. Strange to say, a Partridge and a hen were
found sitting together upon the nest.'—Yorkshire Gazette, J u n e , 1805.
' I t is a curious fact,' says Mr. Jesse, ' t h a t when young Partridges
are hatched and have left the nest, the two portions of each shell
will be found placed the one within the other. I believe that this
is invariably the case. This is doubtless done by the chicks themselves
in their last successful effort to escape from prison.' Only one brood
is reared in the year, unless indeed the first nest be destroyed, and
so a third, if the second happen to be, but in these cases the eggs
are fewer, and the young are said to be less strong.
The Partridge varies much in weight according to the quality of
the country it inhabits, Male; weight, about fifteen ounces; length,
one foot and half an inch; bill, light greyish blue, strong and short,
the upper mandible a good deal curved, overhanging and extending
beyond the lower one; iris, hazel; over and behind it is a bare space
of bright red, and a band of light yellowish chesnut red, edged with
grey. Forehead and head on the sides, light yellowish chesnut, edged
with grey; crown, greyish brown, with slender yellow shaft lines; neck
on the back and sides, and the nape, grey, minutely waved with blackish