Grey Partridge 51 



Soon after this, the most forward chicks make tlieir hrst attempts 

 in the business of flying, and as each day passes, they grow stronger 

 and stronger, till by the end of the month, our covey will be able 

 to follow the parents in the air o\'er a low fence, or if danger threatens, 

 to fly off in different directions for some distance before they squat. 



From tliis time, the anxieties of the parents are much lessened. 

 The power of flight rapidly increases, and in the middle of August, 

 the young birds can cover quite long distances without exhaustion. 

 The birds should now be three jxirts grown, and ha\'e fully ac(]uired 

 their hrst or nestling plumage. \\'ith harvest in full swing, they 

 betake themselves to the stubble fields in the mornings and evenings, 

 readily gathering a plentiful supply of grain, while they spend the 

 heat of the daj' (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) in the adjoining root fields, taking 

 dust baths and arranging their toilets. They feed on the stubble 

 again in the evening until dusk, and at night, they all roost together 

 in a famih' circle, tails in and heads out, covering an absurdlv small 

 space of ground. The nesting feathers are at this time being rapidly 

 replaced b\' the permanent feathers, and these, as in the case of 

 most other birds, at first resemble the plumage of the female parent. 

 In the case of a young cock, the male feathers gradually replace 

 the female feathers up to the New Year. By this time, most of the 

 males are in full feather, but I have often shot birds in January — 

 \'oung cocks — the feathers of whose wing coverts are still mixed, 

 partly male and partly female. 



The covey keeps together to the end of the shooting season, 

 and they rarelv permit any stranger to join their party or to roost 

 with them. Sometimes, however, two or more covies appear to enter 

 into an agreement, and do mess and roost together, and this seems 

 to occur much more in some seasons than in others. Even then, I 

 think, they are more like various tenants of one house that live in 

 the same building but have separate flats. I think each family 

 still keeps more or less separate, though they outwardly join together 

 for the common good. 



The plumage of the Partridge is so well known that it is unneces- 

 sary to describe it in detail. Th*?'"'^ ^'"^ some points, however, about 

 the plumage which I should like to emphasize, because attention is 

 not sufficiently called to them in books, and because thev are 

 important. 



These are the sexual differences. Most books lay stress on the 

 horseshoe patch on the breast as the distinctive feature of the cock 

 bird, and even a good man}^ keepers still look on a well-marked 

 horseshoe as a certain proof of a cock.: 



It is due to Mr. Ogilvie Granr of the British Museum (Nat. 

 Hist. Depart.), that we have, at last, got a clear idea of the sexual 

 variations in plumage. Mr. Grant is, probably, the greatest living 

 authorit}' in this country on game-birds. I mean the game-birds 

 of the world. He is responsible, amongst his other published works, 

 for the catalogue of Game Birds (vol. xxii.) in the National collection. 



