EUROPEAN PARTRIDGE 5 



day. When the young are hatched both parents take charge and are most 

 active and courageous in defense of the young. On one occasion I heard a 

 pair on the far side of a hedge, and looking over the top I was surprised to 

 find that the bold little cock flew straight at my head with loud outcry while 

 the hen busied herself in getting the young under cover as soon as possible. 



Several of the early British writers have referred to an incident, 

 related by Yarrell (1871) as follows: 



A person engaged in a field, not far from my residence, had his attention 

 arrested by some objects on the ground, which, upon approaching, he found 

 to be two Partridges, a male and female, engaged in battle with a Carrion 

 Crow ; so successful and so absorbed were they in the issue of the contest, that 

 they actually held the Crow till it was seized and taken from them by 

 the spectator of the scene. Upon search, young birds, very lately hatched, 

 were found concealed amongst the grass. It would appear, therefore, that the 

 Crow, a mortal enemy to all kinds of young game, in attempting to carry off 

 one of these, had been attacked by the parent birds, and with this singular 

 result. 



Plumages. — In Witherby's handbook (1920) the downy young is 

 described as follows : 



Crown chestnut with a few small black spots sometimes extending to lines; 

 back of neck with a wide black line down centre, at sides pale buff marked 

 black ; rest of upper -parts pale buff with some rufous and black blotches or ill- 

 defined lines, at base of wings a spot, and on rump a patch, of chestnut ; fore- 

 head and sides of head pale yellow-buff (sometimes tinged rufous) with spots, 

 small blotches, and lines of black; chin and throat uniform pale yellow-buff; 

 rest of under-parts slightly yellower, bases of down sooty. 



And the juvenal plumage, in which the sexes are alike, is thus 

 described : 



Crown black-brown finely streaked buff, each feather having buff shaft- 

 streak ; back of neck, mantle, back, rump and upper tail-coverts buff -brown, 

 with whitish to pale buff shaft-streaks inconspicuously margined blackish ; 

 lores and sides of head dark brown streaked whitish ; chin, throat and centre of 

 belly whitish to pale buff; breast, sides and flanks and under tail-coverts 

 brown-buff slightly paler than mantle and with whiter shaft-streaks, faintly 

 margined brown on flanks ; tail much like adult but feathers tipped buff and 

 with subterminal dusky bar and spots and central ones speckled and barred 

 dusky ; primaries brown with pale buff tips and widely spaced bars on outer 

 webs; secondaries with pale buff bars extending across both webs and ver- 

 miculated brown, shafts pale buff; scapulars, inner secondaries and wing- 

 coverts brown-buff with wide brown-black bars and mottlings and pale shaft- 

 streaks widening to white spots at tips of feathers. 



A postj u venal molt, which is complete except for the outer two 

 primaries, produces a first winter plumage. The sexes are now 

 differentiated and resemble the two adults, except for the more 

 pointed tips of the outer primaries. This molt begins when the 

 young bird is about half grown and is sometimes prolonged through 

 December. 



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