58 THE PHEASANT SUBFAMILY 



be but indifferent weapons of offence, and whether they are to be 

 regarded as incipient or as vestigial spurs is a point which has never 

 been investigated, or indeed attracted attention. An examination of 

 one or two embryos might set this point at rest. No such excrescences 

 occur in the grey-partridge. Nor have any observations been recorded 

 as to the relative protective values of the plumage in these two 

 species. Does the uniform brown colour of the upper surface of the 

 redlegged species afford a more perfectly obliterative mantle than 

 the low-toned variegation of our indigenous species ? The similarity 

 of the immature quail-like plumages of the two species is significant. 

 But what interpretation is to be placed on the very marked differences 

 which obtain between the eggs of the two species. Here is a matter 

 on which the egg-collector should have something to say, but his 

 reticence on this, and most other themes concerning eggs, save the 

 numbers in a " clutch," is remarkable. Nothing that has so far been 

 recorded of the life-history of the two species affords us any clue to 

 these problems, but then, as a matter of fact, having regard to the 

 jealous guardianship which is exercised over these birds, our ignorance 

 of all that pertains to their life-history during the greater part of the 

 year is incredible, and this fact will become at least tolerably apparent 

 as these pages unfold their story. 



To begin with, the " common " or grey-partridge (Perdix cinerea) is 

 an indigenous species ; the redlegged-partridge (Caccabis rufa), on the 

 other hand, is an alien. Some seem to have been introduced in the 

 time of Charles II., at Windsor, but these seem to have perished. 

 About 1770 a number were turned down at Sudborne, near Orford, 

 in Suffolk, and at Rendlesham near Sudborne. How these fared does 

 not seem to be certainly known, but it would seem that this bird did 

 not become much known till 1823, when it was introduced into Calford, 

 near Bury St. Edmunds ; and from that time onward this bird has 

 held its own, at any rate in parts of England, and this in spite of 

 repressive measures on the part of those who had taken so much 

 trouble to establish the bird as a breeding species ! These efforts at 



