BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 119 



Pheasants certainly do. We have already mentioned the 

 occurrence of joint nests of Pheasant and Partridge. The 

 eggs resemble those of the Pheasant, but are much 

 smaller. The chick in down is grayish buff tinged ^ith 

 chestnut; there is an imperfect loop of black on the 

 head, and a central, double dark line, and two others, 

 along the back. Like other Game-birds, they possess 

 'precocious flight,' and it must be a point of common 

 observation that a family 'covey' including young only 

 half-grown is able to take wing. 



The immature birds are very similar to the adults ; but 

 the young hen possesses the 'horse-shoe' mark character- 

 istic of the male and absent from the plumage of the 

 adult female — a rather curious fact. Hens of all ages are 

 distinguishable by the buff cross-bars on the wing-coverts. 

 The sober-hued plumage of this species is rather subject to 

 variation, showing chiefly in young birds, and apparently 

 indirectly connected in some way with the nature of their 

 native soil. Albinistic varieties occur at times, and a rare 

 and curious chestnut (erythritic) phase has attracted 

 some attention lately. 



Partridge shooting lasts from 1st September to 1st 

 February in Great Britain, but only from 20th September 

 to 10th January in Ireland. 



THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE 



(Caccabis rufa). 



The Red-legged or 'French' Partridge is, like the 

 Pheasant, only an introduced species in the British Isles, 

 and an introduction of a much later date. Indeed, 

 it has not yet been naturalised for a century and 

 a half. This, and the fact that its distribution is 



