PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 39 



versicolor (from Japan) and P. c. mongolicus (from Mongolia) have been largely 

 imported, and have bred freely with our native stock. [F. c. B. j.] 



3. Migration. This long naturalised but often semi-domesticated bird is 

 resident and stationary. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The ordinary nesting-place is a shallow depression 

 in the ground scratched out by the hen in a wood or hedgerow, or under shelter of 

 bushes and rank vegetation. Many instances have been recorded at different times 

 in which this species has nested in trees, sometimes in old squirrel's dreys, or nests 

 of wood-pigeon, sparrow-hawk, longeared-owl, or other bird, and frequently eggs 

 are found in the nests of other species, such as wild duck, shoveler, partridge, and 

 even woodcock. There is a scanty lining of dry grass, dead leaves, etc., brought 

 together by the hen. (PL LXI.) The eggs are 8 to 14 in number, but as many as 

 22 may be found in a nest, probably the produce of more than one hen. Normally 

 they are uniform olive-brown in colour, varying to some extent in depth of tone, but 

 pale blue eggs are also occasionally met with, though usually regarded by breeders 

 as a sign of degeneracy. Average size of 35 eggs, 1'81 x 1'41 in. [45'9 x 36'0 mm.]. 

 As a rule incubation is performed by the hen alone, although several instances of 

 males incubating have been recorded. The incubation period is about 23 to 24 

 days. In the south of England the first eggs are picked up at the beginning of 

 April, but not till the latter part of that month in the north, and from that time 

 onward through May and June, though only a single brood is reared in the season. 

 [F. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Grain, seeds, fruits, berries, acorns, beech-mast, roots, spangles of 

 oaks containing eggs of the gall-fly, caterpillars and other insects, slugs, earthworms, 

 vipers, mice. The young feed on insects, ants' " eggs " and larvae, and are accom- 

 panied in their search for food by the female, [w. p. p.] 



PARTRIDGE [Perdix pe'rdix (Linnaeus) ; Pe'rdix cinerea Latham. Paitrick 

 or paitrich (S. Scotland). French, perdrix grise ; German, Rebhuhn ; Italian, 

 starnd]. 



I. Description. The common-partridge is to be distinguished at all ages by 

 having the tail composed of eighteen feathers of nearly equal length. There are slight 

 seasonal changes of plumage, and the sexes differ slightly in coloration. (PL 142.) 

 Length 12'5 in. [317'5 mm.]. The adult male is of a brownish buff colour above, 

 with narrow, close-set wavy cross-bars of black, while the scapulars, lesser and 



