COMMON PARTRIDGE. 109 
much exceeds eight or nine. The eggs are very beautiful and 
richly coloured, but vary exceedingly in both ground-colour and 
markings, even those found in the same nest, Some are of a 
yellowish shade, and others of a blood-stain red, mottled and 
blotched with rich umber brown, and the paler ones with shades 
of light-brown.— Fig. 5, plate VT. 
155. PTARMIGAN—(Lagopus vulgaris). 
White Grouse, Rock Grouse, White Game—Only found now 
among the rocky tops of the highest hills and mountains in the 
centre and north of Scotland. It is the smallest species o 
Grouse in Britain, andits plumage varies greatly with the season, 
becoming nearly pure white in winter. It lays seven to ten eggs 
frequently on the bare stones. They are of a yellowish ground- 
colour, blotched and spotted (slightly so as compared with the 
eges of the Red Grouse) with rich dark brown. 
156. COMMON PARTRIDGE—(Perdiz cinerea). 
Much too familiar a bird by appearance, voice and flavour to 
require any very lengthened notice from us. The Partridge 
pairs pretty early—by the end of January, often—and once paired 
they never separate again throughout the season. At pairing 
time the cocks fight fiercely, and I have sometimes seen, and 
even in my garden here, three or four engaged in the conflict, 
with another, probably the female “apple of discord,’ sitting 
quietly by the while. I have seen the male, too, in the evening, 
when summoning his newly-married wife, stand on the top of one 
of our stone walls and call repeatedly. The nest is made on the 
ground in afield of grass or corn, or on a dry hedge bank, or at 
the foot of a wall among the long grass, and consists of little but 
a slight depression in the ground, with a few dead leaves and 
bents. The number of eggs varies between eight or ten and 
