It frequents cultivated land and corn-fields, ranging sometimes into neighbouring waste ground covered with furze and broom. It runs with great rapidity when alarmed, but often squats close to the ground and flies off when nearly approached. The food of the Partridge consists of corn, grain of various kinds, peas, seeds, and tender shoots of grass; it also consumes insects and larvæ of many kinds, that would otherwise injure the crops. It feeds principally in the early morning and late in the evening, when coveys of these birds may be met with in fields of corn or stubble, according to the season. During the day they frequent pasture lands, and sun and dust themselves in dry bare places, or bask under hedgerows. In the evening their sharp shrill call-note is heard as they collect together to roost on the ground. The coveys, which assemble in the latter part of the autumn, and keep together during the winter, separate again early in the spring, when pairing-time begins. The nest is merely a slight hollow in the ground, lined with a few dried leaves, or bits of grass scraped together; it is usually placed beneath a tuft of grass, among standing corn, or even by the road-side. The eggs are from twelve to twenty, and of a greenish brown tint; occasionally, a greater number are found, but these are not supposed to be the produce of one bird. The female alone broods, guarding her nest with zealous anxiety, but her partner is also on the watch, lest danger should approach. The following instance of the care of the Partridge for her eggs is related by Mr. Jesse:--"A gentleman living near Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, who was one day riding over his farm superintending his men as they ploughed a piece of fallow land, saw a Partridge glide off her nest so near the foot of one of his plough-horses that he thought the eggs must have been crushed: this, however, was not the case; but he found that the old bird was on the point of hatching, as several of the eggs were beginning to chip. He observed the old bird return to her nest the instant that he left the spot. It was evident that the next round of the plough must bury the nest and eggs in the furrow. His surprise was great, when returning with the plough, he came to the spot and saw the nest indeed, but the eggs and bird were gone. An idea struck him that she had removed her eggs, and he found her before he left the field sitting under the hedge upon twenty-one eggs. The round of ploughing had occupied about twenty minutes, and in this short time she, assisted by the cock bird, had removed the twenty-one eggs to a distance of about forty yards."