The red-legged partridge begins to nest quite a week earlier than
the English birds. The keeper expects to find his first partridge's
egg about April 25: and probably it will be a Frenchman's. Great
will be his satisfaction if the first egg should happen to be an
English bird's. The same friendly rivalry exists between neighbouring
keepers as to who shall find the first partridge egg as with the first
pheasant's egg. Not until May will the partridges' laying season be in
full swing. English partridges nest always on the ground, but Frenchmen
sometimes nest so far aloft as on the top of a straw-rick. So they
escape the fox, which tears the English birds off their nests on all
sides. There is an idea in the heads of country folk that the French
partridge habitually deserts her first clutch of eggs without cause.
No doubt this delusion has arisen from the forsaken appearance of the
birds' nests and eggs; when stained by soil, the eggs look decidedly
stale. While the mother bird never deserts her nest without good cause,
she is in no hurry about nesting; and there are often long intervals
between the laying of the first egg, the completion of the clutch, and
the beginning of sitting operations. We have heard of a case where this
interval was one of six weeks. Yet a full brood was hatched.
French partridges have a good deal in common with guinea-fowls. The
call which members of a covey of Frenchmen make to each other bears the
strongest resemblance to the guinea-fowl's "Go-back, go-back." They
are alike in making a deep "scrape" in the soil for their nest, which
is complete when the hollow has been scratched to their liking. Then
the dingy-white ground-colour and the rusty speckles of their eggs are
similar; and the eggs of guinea-fowl and of Frenchmen are commonly
found well plastered and stained with soil, through being turned over
in the unlined nest. The eggs have notably thick shells.
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