Delayed Hatching
Some accounts, that have strained the credulity of many naturalists, have appeared in The Times concerning the hatching of eggs, apparently deserted for weeks. My own increaulity, so far as it existed, has been quite banished by a letter from a keeper who is among the best naturalists—at least so far as game birds go—of whom I have any know- ledge. He wrote in answer to a sportsman's query: " I had a similar experience a year or two ago. I found a French partridge nest with eleven eggs. Nothing happened for four days, when she laid another egg, twelve altogether. Time went on. I thought she had given up the idea of going down on the eggs. I looked at the eggs several times ; it looked as if the eggs would soon be grown over. I have seen the eggs half submerged in water and made my mind up to take them ; but after about sixteen days the bird went down on them and hatched them all. I have no hesitation in believing every word of the account in The Times." The question arose: Are the eggs of the French partridge peculiar in keeping quality—Bramleys compared with Codlins? Can this be the reason why the redlegs do much better than other ground-nesting birds among market garden crops?
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