3-021-032 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A brood of partridges, 1869. 'Nature has no prettier sight to show among its "maternities" than a brood of partridges within a week after they are out of the shell...You never know where you may light on a nest, and they are often difficult to see, as the hen partridge covers up the eggs when she leaves them during the laying...The continuous rain of last week made fearful havoc among the partridge nests in various parts of Surrey. The birds were sitting chiefly in standing grass and hedgerows, and the rain completely swamped the nests and drove the sitting partridges off. The matted grass around dammed water in, and covered the eggs. The birds will resume the sitting over the eggs; but in all instances where the process of incubation had progressed - and birds went to nest very early this season - the eggs are chilled and the prospect of hatching out irretrievably lost, many promising broods being thus destroyed. Partridges sitting on banks and hill land have escaped'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.