1. The heavy birds do not make nests, for it does not agree with their
mode of flight, as the quail, partridge, and all such birds; but when
they have made a hole in the smooth ground (for they never produce
their young in any other place), they collect together some thorns and
sticks for a defence against the hawks and eagles, and there lay their
eggs and incubate. As soon as the young are hatched, they lead them
out, because their slow flight prevents them from procuring food for
them. The quail and partridge shelter their young under their wings,
like the domestic fowl.
2. They do not lay and incubate in the same place, lest any one should
discover the place while they sat there for a long while; and when any
one in hunting falls upon the nest, the partridge halts before him, as
if she could be taken, and draws him after her in the hopes of capture,
until all the young ones have had time to escape, and after she flies
back and recalls them to their nest. The partridge does not lay less
than ten eggs, and often sixteen. As it has been already observed,
it is a bird of an evil and cunning disposition. In the spring they
separate with singing and fighting into pairs with the females which
each may happen to take. The partridge being a bird of violent
passions, it tries to prevent the female from incubation by rolling
and breaking the eggs, if it can find them. The female, opposing this
artifice by another, lays her eggs as she runs, and often, from her
desire of laying, she drops her eggs wherever she may be, if the male
is present; and, that they may all be preserved, she does not return to
them. If she is observed by men, she leads them away from her eggs as
from her young ones, and shows herself just before them until they are
drawn away from the nest.
3. When the hen has escaped for incubation, the cocks crow and fight
together. These are called widowers. The vanquished in the combat
follows his conqueror who alone has intercourse with him; and if any
one is overcome by a second, or by any chance one, the victor has
secret intercourse with him. This does not take place always, but only
at certain seasons of the year. The quail does the same, and domestic
fowls also; for when a new one is offered in the temples, where they
are kept without the females, all in turn are united with it. Tame
partridges have sexual intercourse with wild ones, and strike and
insult them.
4. The leader of the wild partridges attacks the partridge used in
fowling, and goes out crowing as if he would fight. When he is taken
in the trap, the other goes out and crows in the same manner. If the
partridge used for fowling is a cock, they behave in this way; but if
it is a female, and she calls, the leader answers her call; and all the
rest rise up and beat him, and drive him away from the female, because
he attends to her instead of themselves. For this reason he often comes
silently, that the others may not hear his voice and come out to fight
him. And some experienced fowlers say that the male approaches the
female in silence, that the other males may not hear him and compel him
to fight them. The partridge not only calls, but also utters a shrill
cry and other sounds.
5. And it often happens, when the hen is sitting, that if she sees the
male approaching the decoy bird, she will get up from her nest and
remain in his way, that he may have intercourse with her, and not be
drawn away by the decoy bird. Partridges and quails have such violent
sexual desires that they will fall upon the fowlers and often perch
upon their heads.