PARTRIDQa 



Partridge There is no doubt about it at all, here 



Ruffled Qrouse is tne kettledrum of Nature's orchestra I 

 The talented performer can not be ex- 

 L. 16.00 inches celled in his wonderful accelerando even 

 All the year by the expert who manages the " kettles " 

 in Theodore Thomas's Orchestra. The "drum" of 

 the Partridge is a most mysterious practice of this fa- 

 vorite game bird. Nearly all of us have seen the 

 Partridge, many of us have heard the drumming, but 

 who to quote William Hamilton Gibson "who, 

 will show us the drum?" In appearance the bird re- 

 sembles his smaller relative Bob-white. The prevailing 

 colors are red-brown variegated by marks and spots of 

 sepia, black, ochre-buff, and dull white ; the broad tail 

 is margined by white, and this is limited by a broad band 

 of black or blackish sepia ; sides of the neck marked with 

 glossy black or sepia-black feathers ; the breast indefi. 

 nitely but the sides rather definitely barred. The female 

 is similarly but not so strongly marked. The nest is on 

 the ground usually beneath a tree or among brush ; it 

 may contain from eight to twelve eggs, rarely more, of 

 a buffish tint. The range of the bird is from Virginia 

 and along the mountains to Georgia, and northward to 

 Canada. It is usually very plentiful in Campton, N. H. t 

 except after a rainy season. Its diet is comprehensive, 

 including innumerable seeds, berries of all kinds, ap. 

 pies, haw apples, buds of many kinds, leaves of clover, 

 sorrel, crowfoot, and dandelion, and insects such as 

 locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and beetles. 

 There has been no end of theorizing by eminent natu- 

 ralists and others interested, regarding tJie way the Par- 

 tridge drums his drum. But I think all opinion may be 

 set aside in the face of the fact that the sound is pro- 

 duced by the concussion of air caused by the rapid 

 movement of the wings ; the latter apparently strike 

 the breast ; in reality they do not, for close observation 

 shows that the wings are brought considerably forward 

 while the body of the bird is stretched to a position as 

 nearly perpendicular as possible.* One good view of a 



*Not always though, for my own observations are not altogether 

 unlike those of others, who state that he does not stand upright J 



