COMMON PARTRIDGE. 113 



the remaining fourteen reddish-chestnut.* The neck and 

 upper part of the breast, the sides, and flanks, light 

 bluish-grey, minutely freckled with dark grey ; lower breast 

 with a rich chestnut-coloured, horse-shoe-shaped patch on 

 a ground of white ; sides and flanks barred with chestnut ; 

 thighs greyish- white ; under tail- coverts yellowish-brown ; 

 the legs and toes bluish- white ; the claws brown. 



The whole length of the male bird is twelve inches and a 

 half. The wing is rounded in form. The length from the 

 carpal joint to the end, six inches ; the first feather about 

 as long as the sixth ; the second equal to the fifth ; and all 

 of them shorter than the third and fourth, which are the 

 longest in the wing. 



The female is generally a little smaller than the male ; 

 the light chestnut-coloured patch round the beak is lighter 

 in colour, and smaller in size than in the male, not extend- 

 ing farther back over the sides of the neck than a line falling 

 perpendicularly from the eye ; the grey feathers of the lower 

 part of the sides of the neck are more mixed with brown ; 

 the lower breast is greyish-white, not assuming the dark 

 chestnut patch till the second or third year ; the chestnut 

 bars on the flanks are broader. 



Young birds before their first autumn moult have no red 

 mark behind the eye ; the general plumage is of a uniform 

 brownish-yellow, barred and streaked with darker brown ; 

 the legs and toes yellowish clay-brown. During the two first 

 months of our shooting-season, the young Partridges may be 

 found in every stage of moult. 



Varieties of the Partridge in colour are very common, some 

 exhibiting only patches of white ; others are wholly white; and 

 cream-coloured, or very pale buff-coloured varieties are also 



* It is not easy to count with accuracy the number of taikfeathers in pre- 

 pared skins of Partridges, and authorities do not agree upon this point, owing to 

 a difference of opinion as to whether the two central feathers belong to the true 

 tail or to the upper tail-coverts. After examining a large number of birds in 

 the flesh, the Editor has come to the conclusion that the Common Partridge has 

 eighteen, and the Red-legged Partridge fourteen, true rectrices. The fact that, 

 as a rule, these game-birds are only procurable in autumn, when they are in 

 moult, adds to the difficulty. 



VOL. III. Q 



