436 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



Mr. Gurney's employ whether he had ever met with 

 this species about Earlham and Hellesdon, and his reply, 

 in the negative, was almost instantly followed by the 

 appearance of the bird itself. 



I never remember to have noticed any particular 

 variation in the plumage of these birds, and was there- 

 fore more particularly struck with a specimen which 

 was killed on the borders of Household Heath, near 

 Norwich, in January of the present year. This bird, 

 which was at least one-third smaller than ordinary 

 examples, presented the same peculiarities as are said 

 to distinguish the small dark varieties of the common 

 partridge occasionally met with in heathery districts. 

 The whole of the ground colour of the plumage, com- 

 monly of a pale brownish yellow, was in this bird sooty 

 grey, particularly noticeable on the chin and throat ; 

 the usual light streaks, also, pervading the feathers of 

 the back and sides, forming two parallel lines on either 

 side of the shafts, were in this instance dark grey, and 

 the shafts of the feathers throughout, being pure white, 

 had the appearance of so many light hair lines standing 

 out in relief upon the dark back-ground. 



Both Messrs. Gurney and Fisher and Mr. Lubbock 

 have included the Virginian Colin, Ortyx virginianus 

 (Linn.), amongst the birds of Norfolk, several pairs having 

 been turned off early in the present century at Holkham, 

 by the late Earl of Leicester, but these, although thriving 

 well in the first instance, and giving some promise of 

 becoming acclimatized, have long since died off, and I am 

 obliged, therefore, to omit this species from the present 

 ^' List." Mr. Lubbock describes them as being of erratic 

 habits, scattering themselves about here and there, and 

 thus straying no doubt beyond the boundaries of the Holk- 

 ham estate, they were gradually killed off by persons 

 unaware of their history. The success which at first 

 attended the experiment is shown by the following extract 



