COMMON PARTRIDGE. 391 



to get back to the field they were bred in, apparently in 

 search of their former companions. Later in the season, 

 the whole covey, when flushed, will take to the woods 

 in some districts, and frequently when they have become 

 strong on the wing, the remains of several coveys unite, 

 forming a pack, and are then very wild and difficult to 

 approach. 



Mr. Selby observes that the Partridge is found to vary 

 considerably in size, according to situation, and the different 

 nutritive qualities of food ; thus, the largest are met with 

 in districts where an abundance of grain prevails, whilst 

 upon the precincts of moors, where but an inconsiderable 

 portion of arable land is offered to them, they are much 

 inferior in size, although perhaps by no means evincing a 

 similar inferiority in point of flavour. 



It has been observed to me also, that on some heathy 

 districts in Surrey, as the Hurtwood and Bagshot Heath, 

 the Partridges seldom frequent the corn-lands, but subsist 

 on heath and hurtle-berries. These birds are not so white 

 in the flesh when dressed as others, and have some of the 

 flavour of the Grouse. 



The Partridge is so generally distributed over this coun- 

 try as to make an enumeration of particular localities un- 

 necessary ; but though plentiful in some of the low grounds 

 of Scotland, Mr. Macgillivray says there are none on the 

 islands of the outer or western Hebrides. M. Nilsson in- 

 cludes this bird in his Fauna of Scandinavia, and it is found 

 in suitable localities over the European continent to the 

 shores of the Mediterranean. M. Temminck says it inha- 

 bits Barbary and Egypt ; and two Russian naturalists have 

 included it in their Catalogues of the Birds found in the 

 country between the Black and the Caspian Seas, south 

 of the Caucasian mountain range. Though stationary all 

 the year in central Europe, this bird is said to be migratory 



