THE PARTRIDGE 
PERDIX CINEREA 
Loca names in surrounding counties : 
Status in British Avirauna: A common and widely 
distributed resident in all districts where it is preserved. 
Rapiat DistTriBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 
Paut’s : Almost precisely the same remarks apply to the 
distribution of the Partridge in the Metropolitan area as 
those given concerning that of the Pheasant. ‘The bird 
may be met with occasionally at Wimbledon and in 
Richmond Park, and is found in the Croydon and Horsen- 
den district. It wanders from time to time into localities 
where it is not preserved, but otherwise the Partridge only 
haunts ground where it is afforded protection from man. 
Under these conditions it is a fairly common resident in 
the remoter portions of our radius. 
In walking over the fields or along the sides of the 
thick, low hedges where the bottoms are full of tangled 
cover the student may be occasionally startled by the 
sudden rising of the Partridge, which with a rattle and 
a whistling whirr hurries alarmed away. During the 
greater part of the year the bird lives in coveys or flocks— 
that is to say, until they become decimated by the gunner 
—haunting the turnip-fields, stubbles, rough, open com- 
mons, and newly sown grain-lands. It is a terrestrial 
species, spending its whole existence upon the ground, 
where it roosts. It is shy and wary, skulking low amongst 
the herbage when alarmed, and often runs quickly 
through the cover to escape in preference to flying, only 
using its wings when compelled or when suddenly dis- 
turbed. Its flight is powerful and prolonged, the wing- 
beats rapid and noisy, and occasionally the bird skims 
for a long distance on stiff and arched pinions. ‘The call- 
note of the Partridge isa shrill kirr-rr-ric, uttered by both 
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