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BREEDING AND " ECLIPSE '^ PLUMAGES OF THE 



COMMON PARTRIDGE. 



BY 



W. R. OGILVIE-GRANT. 



At a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, held 

 on December 13th, 1911, I exhibited a series of examples 

 of the Common Partridge (Perdix perdix), to illustrate 

 two remarkable seasonal changes of plumage which 

 occur in the male and female, and which had not hitherto 

 been recorded. Firstly, the male Partridge, during the 

 autumn moult, which lasts from July to the beginning 

 of September, assumes a partial eclipse-plumage on the 

 sides of the head and on the neck, a peculiarity first 

 pointed out to me by Mr. G. E. Lodge. This plumage 

 consists of light umber-brown feathers with very narrow, 

 buff shaft-stripes, finely bordered with black ; it replaces 

 for a period of some two months the normal feathers, 

 which are grey, finely waved with black (Figs. 1 and 2). 



The head and neck being the last portions of the bird 

 to renew their feathers, it is a common occurrence to find 

 old males, in the early part of September, with the sides 

 of the head and neck still retaining the eclipse-plumage. 

 Such specimens are frequently mistaken by sportsmen 

 for very " forward " young birds. The remains of the 

 first plumage on the sides of the neck in birds of the year 

 are, however, very different from the eclipse-plumage 

 of adult males, the former being sandy-brown with much 

 wider and more distinct buff shaft-stripes. The feathers 

 of the immature plumage are, moreover, much longer 

 and more pointed than the eclipse-feathers of the adult. 



While examining female Partridges to ascertain whether 

 they also assumed an eclipse-plumage, I made the remark- 

 able discovery that the hen bird attains a partial breeding 

 plumage on the sides of the head, as w^ell as on the neck 

 and upper-mantle, many of the normal feathers being 

 replaced in the month of May by sandy-brown feathers 

 irregularly mottled or barred with black, with a buff 



