THE COLOURS OF PARTRIDGES 55 



some time to elucidating the plumage of partridges, 

 publishing the results of his labours in the ' Field ' of 

 November 21, 1891, from which we quote the sub- 

 stance of his remarks. 



Mr. Grant finds that the only trustworthy charac- 

 teristics by which a male partridge may always be dis- 

 tinguished from a female, except when very young, 

 are the following : 



1. In the male, the sides of the neck are brownish 

 grey, or nearly pure slate colour, with fine wavy lines 

 of black ; none of the feathers have pale buff stripes 

 down the shaft. In the female these parts are olive- 

 brown, and almost all the feathers have a pale buff 

 stripe down the shaft, often somewhat dilated or club- 

 shaped towards the extremity, and finely margined 

 with black. 



2. In the male, the ground colour of the terminal 

 half of the lesser and medium wing coverts is pale 

 olive-brown, with a chestnut patch on one or both 

 webs, and each feather has a narrow pale buff shaft- 

 stripe, and narrow, wavy transverse black lines. In 

 the female, the ground colour of these parts is mostly 

 black, shading into buff towards the extremity ; each 

 feather has a fairly wide buff shaft-stripe, and is also 

 transversely barred with buff, narrowly edged with 

 black. The buff cross-bars on the wing coverts are 



