GALLINID.E. 



lourteen or eighteen feathers, is short, rounded at 

 the extremity, and drooping- downwards ; and the 

 wings are also short, rounded, and hollow. Par- 

 tridges are stationary in some countries, and shift 

 their abodes with the seasons in others. They are 

 very numerous in warm and temperate regions of the 

 globe, living in pairs, and steady in their family at- 

 tachments. The greatest number reside in the fields 

 and in open tracts of country, with the exception of 

 some, which prefer the outskirts of woods in the 

 neighbourhood of water. Their food consists of 

 grain, seeds, bulbous plants, insects, and worms. 

 They run more frequently than fly, get up from the 

 ground with some difficulty, and make a whirring 

 noise when on the wing. They have numerous 

 broods generally ; and the young, as soon as they 

 are hatched, run about indeed, they may be often 

 seen running with a portion of the shell adhering to 

 their bodies. The species and varieties of partridges 

 are very numerous, so that we can afford to notice 

 only a few of the leading ones. 



The partridges of the eastern continent admit of 

 subdivision into two sections : the true partridges, 

 which have the bill and tail short, and no produced 

 spurs on the tarsi ; and the J'rancolins, which have 

 the bill and tail produced, and spurs on the tarsi. 

 The former are strictly monogamous, and fight few 

 battles of mere gallantry, though they fight stoutly 

 for their pastures ; but the second are very pugna- 

 cious in some of the species. As a whole race they 

 inhabit warmer latitudes than the true partridges. 

 We shall notice them in order, and first the true 

 partridges. Besides these there is a third division, 

 the Colitis, or partridge of North America, which are 

 perchers, having the bill short and stout, and some of 

 them are migratory. 



The Common ur Grey Partridge (P. cinerea). The 

 male of this species, when full grown and in good 

 condition, weighs about fifteen or sixteen ounces, and 

 the female about two ounces less ; the length of the 

 entire bird thirteen inches, breadth twenty ; the eyes 

 are hazel ; the bill in the young is brown, in the old 

 bluish white ; the legs also are yellowish when 

 young, and, as they increase in age, turn to a dark 

 bluish white. The age of partridges is discovered 

 by the bill and legs ; and another method is, from 

 the appearance of the last feather of the wing, which 

 is pointed after the first moult, but in the following- 

 year is quite round. The general colour of the plum- 

 age is brown ash, elegantly mixed with black, and 

 each feather is streaked down the middle with buff- 

 colour ; the chin, cheeks, and forehead are tawny, 

 and palest in the females. Under each eye there is 

 a spot, with small warty excrescences, and above and 

 behind the eye, towards the ear, is a naked skin of a 

 bright scarlet, which is not very conspicuous, except 

 in old birds ; the legs of the male are furnished with 

 u blunt spur or knob behind, and the breast with a 

 crescent of a deep chestnut colour, which takes place 

 the beginning of October ; this mark the female 

 wants, and her feathers are in general not so distinct 

 and bright. It is said the partridge, if unmolested, 

 Jives from fifteen to seventeen years ; others dispute 

 this computation, and maintain that they live seven 

 years, and give over laying in the sixth, and are at 

 their full vigour when two years old. Partridges 

 pair about the third week in February, and some- 

 times after being paired, if the weather be extremely 

 severe, they all gather together, and again form the 



covey. _ They begin to lay about six weeks after be. 

 ing paired. According to Ray there are one-third 

 more male than female partridges hatched ; and it is 

 well known the old cocks will drive the young cocks 

 cff the ground, and afterwards frequently fight until 

 they kill each other. In this respect partridges differ 

 from pheasants ; they will have a certain ranc to 

 themselves, whilst pheasants will hatch and live 

 quietly with their broods close together. When too 

 many birds are left, these contentions are sure to 

 happen ; and the consequence is a scanty produce, 

 for the female is so pursued, that she drops her o-s 

 in various places, forming no nest, and perhaps never 

 laying two eggs in the same spot. So well aware 

 was the duke of Kingston of this circumstance, that 

 he always had the partridges netted upon his manors 

 as soon as they were paired, and destroyed all the 

 surplus cocks. Mr. White, the naturalist of Sel- 

 borne, relates that a friend, who was fond of setting, 

 used frequently to take small coveys of partridges, 

 entirely consisting of cock-birds ; these he pleasantly, 

 and not inaptly, used to term Old Bachelors. The 

 late Mr. Doughty of Seiston, who was an excellent 

 and most observant sportsman, once preserved an 

 overstock of old partridges, and declared that he did 

 not believe, for two seasons following, there was a 

 covey of young birds upon a tract of near three 

 thousand acres of as fine breeding land as any in the 

 kingdom ; he shot, and encouraged the destruction 

 of this stock of ancients by all possible means ; and 

 the result was, that the partridges bred again as 

 abundantly as formerly. The amorous nature of par- 

 tridges has given rise to very strange accounts ; we 

 are unprepared to controvert, and less inclined to in- 

 vestigate, this peculiar propensity ascribed to them. 

 The female lays her eggs on the ground, scraping to- 

 gether a few bents and decayed leaves, which are 

 strewed roughly in the hollow made by an ox or 

 horse's foot. This nest is formed upon hedge-banks, 

 in com or grass, but more particularly in clover 

 fields ; and the number of eggs laid are from fifteen 

 to twenty-five, of a greenish-grey colour : the number 

 of eggs is much reduced when the bird is either very 

 young or very old, and also when the first eggs have 

 been destroyed and a second hatch produced. There 

 have, however, been instances of amazing fecundity 

 in the partridge. On a farm occupied by Mr. Pratt, 

 near Ferling, in Essex, in the year 1793, a partridge 

 nest was found in a fallow field with thirty-three 

 eggs ; twenty-three of the eggs were hatched, and 

 the birds went off; four more had live birds in them i 

 the number of the eggs was ascertained before hatch- 

 ing, to decide a bet laid by a person who refused to 

 credit so unusual a production ; the female covered 

 all the eggs ; seven of which in the centre were piled 

 in a curious manner. A nest was found in 1798 at 

 Elborough, Somersetshire, in a wheat field, with 

 twenty-eight eggs. In June, 1801, at Welton-place, 

 Nottinghamshire, the seat of Mr. Clarke, a partridge's 

 nest was found in a plantation, containing thirty- 

 three eggs. 



Upon Sion-hall farm, in Essex, belonging to Colonel 

 Hawker, in 1788, the following extraordinary inci- 

 dent of a partridge depositing her eggs, was known 

 to many persons. This bird chose the top of an 

 oak pollard to make her nest ; and this tree, too, had 

 one end of the bars of a stile, where there was a foot- 

 path, fastened into it ; and by the passengers going 

 over the stile, before she sat close, she was disturbed 



