172 On the Ornithology of Wilts \_Tetraonidce]. 



unequalled. In many respects it reminds one of the Plover tribe.^ 

 " Partridge." {Perdix cinerea.) Unlike the preceding members 

 of this famil}^ the well known bird now under consideration thrives 

 better in cultivated than in barren land, and nowhere multiplies more 

 rapidly than in the most highly farmed districts. Its appearance 

 and habits are so well known that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon 

 them. I will then merely append a few notes with which I have 

 been furnished by the late Rev. George Marsh. " Since the intro- 

 duction of the new Game Laws, the numbers of this common but 

 beautiful and useful bird have very much declined. Their enemies 

 are numerous, the gun, the net, the trap of man ; the stoat and 

 weazle, the magpie, crow and jay, and the mower are among the most 

 conspicuous. The Hedgehog is also no doubt one of its enemies, as the 

 keepers at Winterslow used to tell me that an e^g was the best bait 

 for the trap intended to catch the hedgepig. In the summer of 

 1841, a farmer of the neighbouring parish of Langley heard two 

 partridges in a hedge in a grass field making a great noise ; so he 

 approached the spot, and found two old birds manfully defending 

 their nest against a hedgehog : he killed the animal, and the eggs 

 eighteen in number, were soon afterwards hatched, I have witness- 

 ed myself the destruction of a nest by a magpie. In this county 

 the poacher fixes a flue net in the corner of a field where he has 

 roosted birds, and then under cover of a horse he gradually walks 

 the birds into the net. These birds do better, when some of them 

 are shot every year ; if all are spared, the old birds drive away the 

 young ones." I may add that partridges feed shortly after sunrise, 

 and a little before sunset, retiring to bask in the sun or dust them- 

 selves on dry banks at midday. They roost on the ground in the 

 open field shortly after sunset, and the whole covey sits closely 

 crowded together in a circle, tails towards the centre, heads out- 

 wards, (like a watchful round robin) for the sake of security, and 

 in order to avoid a surprise. 



" Red-legged Partridge." [Perdix rubra.) It is our good fortune 

 in Wiltshire to know but little of this bird, which has been 

 encouraged in some districts of England, and has ended in driving 



1 See an admirable figui'e of this bird, as well as a good general description, 

 by Mr. T. J. Moore, in the Ibis, vol. ii., pp. 105-110. 



