Partridges are remarkable for never perching nor alighting on trees. They live in cultivated lands, constructing their nests upon the ground, and having usually from fifteen to eighteen eggs. These are hatched towards the beginning of June, and the young ones are able to run as soon as they come into the world. If the eggs happen to be destroyed, the female will, in many cases, form another nest, and produce a second offspring. The birds of this brood are not perfectly fledged till the beginning of October; and are always a puny race. If the eggs of partridges be placed under a common hen, she will hatch them, and rear the young ones without difficulty. But these, after they are grown, almost always escape into the fields and become wild. It is said that the inhabitants of Scio, one of the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, rear large flocks of partridges, which, during the day, are permitted to visit the fields, and in the evening always return home to roost. At the commencement of the breeding season they abscond for some time; but, after having hatched their coveys, they return with their families to the farm-yard.
The attachment of partridges to their offspring, and the stratagems which they adopt to draw off the attention of their enemies whilst these seek their safety by flight or concealment, are well known to almost all persons who are resident in the country.
It is usually considered that the dark-coloured feathers on the breast of the partridge are peculiar to the male; but it has been ascertained beyond a doubt that these are also common to the female. The males can be distinguished from the females only by a superior brightness of the plumage about the head.
168. The QUAIL (Tetrao corturnix) is a bird considerably smaller than, but much resembling, the partridge: its form, however, is more slender, the body is spotted with grey, the eyebrows are white; and the tail-feathers have a rust-coloured edge and crescent.
These birds are found in some parts of England; but in other countries of Europe, as well as in several districts of Asia and Africa, they are extremely numerous.
Quails are migratory birds, generally arriving in this country betwixt the middle of August and the middle of September, and departing in April. They are greatly esteemed for the table; and are usually eaten roasted (without being drawn), and served on toast, in the same manner as woodcocks. So numerous are they, in many countries of the Continent, that they may be purchased, even by dozens, at a very low price. In some parts of Italy thousands of quails are caught in a day, at the periods of their migration. The Russians also take them in immense numbers, and, packing them in casks, send them for sale to Petersburgh and Moscow. We formerly imported great numbers of these birds alive from France. They were conveyed, by the stage coaches, in large square boxes, divided into five or six compartments one above another, and just high enough for the birds to stand upright, each box containing about a hundred quails. These boxes had wire in front, and each partition was furnished with a small trough for food. The object of this importation was solely for the table.
So irritable is the disposition of the quail, that, whenever the males are kept together, they always fight. This propensity rendered them esteemed by the ancient Greeks and Romans, for the same purposes as game cocks are by many of the moderns. The fighting of quails is, at this day, a fashionable diversion with the Chinese, and in some parts of Italy. The ancients did not eat these birds, under a supposition that they were an unwholesome food.
Quails are not so prolific as partridges. They seldom have more than six or seven eggs, which are of whitish colour marked with ragged rust-coloured spots.
169. The BUSTARD (Otis tarda, Fig. 39), the largest land bird which is produced in England, is distinguished by its plumage being waved and spotted, with black and dusky, and whitish beneath; and the bill being convex and strong, with a tuft of feathers on each side of the lower mandible.
These birds are about four feet in length, and are found in small flocks on open plains of different countries of Europe, Asia, or Africa. They were formerly seen on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, and other parts of England; but, in consequence of the enclosures which have of late years been made, the breed is supposed to be nearly extinct in this country.