PARTRIDGE. 
Partridge There is no doubt about it at all, here 
saa Grouse i; the kettledrum of Nature’s orchestra ! 
a Uitice The talented performer can not be ex- 
L. 16.00 inches celled in his wonderful accelerando even 
All the year by the expert who manages the ‘“‘ kettles” 
in Theodore Thomas’s Orchestra. The ‘‘drum” of 
the Partridge is a most mysterious practice of this fa- 
vorite game bird. Nearly all of us have seen the 
Partridge, many of us have heard the drumming, but 
who— to quote William Hamilton Gibson — ‘‘who, 
will show us the drum?” In appearance the bird re- 
sembles his smaller relative Bob-white. The prevailing 
colors are red-brown variegated by marks and spots of 
sepia, black, ochre-buff, and dull white; the broad tail 
is margined by white, and thisis limited by a broad band 
of black or blackish sepia ; sides of the neck marked with 
glossy black or sepia-black feathers ; the breast indefi. 
nitely but the sides rather definitely barred. The female 
is similarly but not so strongly marked. The nest ison 
the ground usually beneath a tree or among brush; it 
ma‘ contain from eight to twelve eggs, rarely more, of 
a buffish tint. The range of the bird is from Virginia 
and along the mountains to Georgia, and northward to 
Canada. It is usually very plentiful in Campton, N. H., 
except after a rainy season. Its diet is comprehensive, 
including innumerable seeds, berries of all kinds, ap. 
ples, haw apples, buds of many kinds, leaves of clover, 
sorrel, crowfoot, and dandelion, and insects such as 
locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and beetles. 
There has been no end of theorizing by eminent natu- 
ralists and others interested, regarding the way the Par- 
tridge drums his drum, But I think all opinion may be 
set aside in the face of the fact that the sound is pro- 
duced by the concussion of air caused by the rapid 
movement of the wings; the latter apparently strike 
the breast ; in reality they do not, for close observation 
shows that the wings are brought considerably forward 
while the body of the bird is stretched to a position as 
nearly perpendicular as possible.* One good view of a 
* Not always though, for my own observations are not altogether 
unlike those of others, who state that he does not stand upright } 
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