60 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



of the vent.' The description just given was taken 

 from a male specimen. Mr. Hancock adds that ' the 

 dark rich brown colour of these birds suggests at first 

 sight the opinion that they may be hybrids between 

 the partridge and red grouse, but on a more careful 

 examination there is nothing to confirm this.' 



Pale buff varieties of the partridge are not very 

 infrequently met with in collections. Birds in which 

 the horse-shoe is pale brown and the body plumage a 

 very pale bluish or stone grey are shot from time to 

 time in England ; they have been met with likewise 

 in Ireland. In all the ' blue ' partridges that we have 

 personally seen, the chestnut colour of the forehead 

 and throat had been replaced by cream colour. 



Pure white and pied partridges have been met 

 with in Great Britain on many occasions. Some of 

 the number have been real albinos, in which the 

 characters of a blanched white dress and red irides 

 occurred together. By far the larger proportion of 

 white birds are examples of leucotism, if we may be 

 allowed to employ the phrase long ago brought into 

 use by the late Mr. Edward Blyth to explain the 

 conjunction of pure white plumage and irides of 

 the normal colour. Mr. A. Hasted recorded, in the 

 'Zoologist' of 1892, the occurrence of two white 

 partridges in a single covey. ' On the wing they both 



