THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. 101 



breeding season, will exhibit a much clearer plu- 

 mage than that of the autumnal dress of the males.* 



PERDIX, Latham. Generic characters. Bill 

 short, rather strong, bending from the base ; 

 nostrils lateral, uncovered by feathers, but pro- 

 tected by an arched naked scale ; wings short, 

 rounded, fourth and fifth quills longest ; tarsi 

 and feet naked; anterior toes united at the 

 base by a membrane. 



Types, P. cinerea, picta, &c. Europe, Asia. 



Note. Frequent lower countries, and are partial 

 to cultivation. Not arboreal, gregarious only 

 to the amount of their broods. 



THE COMMON PARTRIDGE, PERDIX CINEREA, Ray. 

 Perdix cinerea. Partridge of British authors. 

 The Partridge is distributed extensively over 

 Europe, and, according to Temminck, extends to 

 Barbary and Egypt, where it is migratory. It is 

 almost everywhere abundant in our own island, 

 the more northern moorish districts excepted. It 

 follows the steps of man as he reclaims the wastes, 

 and delights in the cultivation, which brings to it, 

 as to the labourers, a plentiful harvest of grain. 

 It is, perhaps, most abundant in the lower richly 

 cultivated plains of England; but even the south of 



* " Average length of the male specimen is 13| inches ; of 

 female, 12. Sabine Supp. to Append, to Ross, p. cxcvii. 



