French Partridge 59 



I lb. 2 oz. and i lb. 5 oz., the young cocks always weighing less than 

 the old ones. Seeing how little trouble the males that are 

 mated take over their responsibilities, one would expect that 

 they would gain, instead of decrease, in weight as the years go on. 

 The sexes are alike in plumage, and it is not possible to tell a male 

 of the year from the female without dissection. After the first year, 

 the male begins to develop a wart or callosity on the back of his 

 leg above his hind toe. This is really a rudimentary spur, such as 

 Pheasants and (iame Cocks possess in a perfect condition, and it 

 becomes more and more developed as the bird gets older and older, 

 but in its highest form of development, it never gets beyond the 

 stage of a large wart ; that is to say, it never becomes of any use for 

 offensive purposes. 



It is supposed by many writers that hybrids occur between the 

 French and English Partridges. I can only say that I have never 

 seen such a hybrid, and I believe the supposition to be entirely 

 without foundation. Of course, I am speaking of birds in a state 

 of nature and not under artificial conditions ; but even in the latter 

 instance, I am not aware that any authenticated skin is in existence 

 shewing the product of the crossing of these two species. Bigeneric 

 hybrids are always extremely rare in nature, and I cannot imagine 

 the smallest grounds for supposing that two such widely separated 

 genera as these would be likely to cross in a state of nature, or, for 

 the matter of that, in confinement ; and if they did, I should expect 

 the union to be infertile. 



I mention the point, because notes appear in the Field and other 

 papers every j-ear recording the shooting of such an hybrid (properlv 

 authenticated with dates and names and everything else). And 

 there is hardly any one who is known to be interested in birds who 

 does not receive one or more such specimens ever\' year. Now, I 

 have had a fair percentage of such specimens sent to me, and I 

 have never had the least doubt what they were. They were half- 

 grown French Partridges, pure and simple, in the rather peculiar 

 plumage which perhaps gives some colour to the idea of their crossing 

 with the English birds ; and they had been shot in September or even 

 in October, at a time when most of the Frenchmen had completed 

 the moult, and were in full plumage. These imaginary h\'brids 

 were just ordinary French birds in their ordinary plumage at that 

 age. Being a late covey, probably a second nest, thev were only 

 half grown in September, and then, when shot or caught by the dogs, 

 they were looked on as something very extraordinary, simply because 

 the shooters were ignorant of the changes in plumage which takes 

 place in this particular bird. They probably knew the downy chicks, 

 and were of course familiar with the full feathered bird, but this half- 

 way stage entirely confounded them. As I said at the opening of the 

 paper, we are very ignorant, for all our multitudinous host of super- 

 illustrated books, of the life history and plumage changes of any 

 bird, even the common Sparrow. The reason is not far to seek. 



