6 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Adults have a partial prenuptial molt in May and June, some- 

 times in April, and a complete molt from July to November or 

 December. Several observers have experienced some difficulty in 

 distinguishing the sexes among adults, chiefly because many females 

 have the dark chestnut patch on the belly more or less well de- 

 veloped. There seems to be some difference of opinion as to whether 

 this character is more pronounced in old or in young females. But 

 the sexes can always be distinguished by two characters; the light 

 chestnut on the sides of the head is lighter and more restricted in the 

 female; the median wing coverts of the female are dark brown or 

 black, with widely spaced, pale-buff bars; whereas these coverts in 

 the male have no transverse bars, but only a pale-buff shaft streak. 



Food. — In Witherby's handbook (1920) the food of the partridge 

 is summarized by Mr. Jourdain, as follows : 



Chiefly shoots and leaves of grass and clover as well as seeds of many species 

 including Polygonum, Trifolium, Alchemilla, Galium, Spergula, Persicaria, Poa, 

 etc. Turnip leaves, young shoots of heather, bramble and blaeberry, hawthorn 

 berries, and corn also eaten. In spring and summer insects are also taken, 

 including diptera (Tipulidae and larvae), coleoptera and hymenoptera (nnts 

 and their pupae being very favourite food). Also aphides. Once recorded as 

 eating pears on tree ! 



Crops and stomachs of American birds also contained wheat, 

 barley, and oats, mainly waste grain, seeds of wild buckwheat, pig- 

 weed, and other weeds, and grasshoppers. It is said that these 

 birds do not pull up sprouting corn as the pheasants do. Their 

 food habits seem to be wholly beneficial. 



Behavior. — Macgillivray (1837) says, of the gray partridge, tnat it 



is fond of rambling into waste or pasture grounds, which are covered with 

 long grass, furze, or broom ; but it does not often enter woods, and never 

 perches on trees. It runs with surprising speed, when alarmed or in pursuit 

 of its companions, although in general, it squats under the apprehension of 

 danger, or when nearly approached takes flight. Its mode of flying is 

 similar to that of the Brown Ptarmigan ; it rises obliquely to some height, and 

 then flies off in a direct course, rapidly flapping its wings, which produce 

 a whirring sound. 



Yarrell (1871) writes: 



During the day a covey of Partridges, keeping together, are seldom seen 

 on the wing unless disturbed ; they frequent grass-fields, preferring the 

 hedge-sides, some of them picking up insects, and occasionally the green 

 leaves of plants ; others dusting themselves in any dry spot where the soil 

 is loose, and this would seem to be a constant practice with them in dry 

 weather, if we may judge by the numerous dusting places, with the marks and 

 feathers to be found about their haunts; and sportsmen find, in the early 

 part of the shooting-season, that young and weak birds are frequently infested 

 with numerous parasites. In the afternoon the covey repair to some neigh- 

 Douring field of standing corn, or, if that be cut, to the stubble, for the second 

 daily meal of grain; and, this completed, the call-note may be heard, accord- 



