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VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE. 



Perdix Virgmiana, LATHAM. JENYNS. 



PerdixA Partridge. riryinianaOf Virginia. 



THE species before us has been introduced into this country 

 from America, where it is indigenous in both continents. Mon- 

 tagu mentions that several had been turned out in different 

 parts of the British Empire, and he speaks of one shot near 

 Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire. In Norfolk, some were turned 

 out by Mr. Coke, (Lord Leicester,) near Holkham, and some 

 of their descendants are believed still to exist; a nest with 

 several eggs was found at Barton, in that county. Several 

 have been killed in the county of Surrey; others were intro- 

 duced at Teddesly, in Staffordshire, by Edward John Littleton, 

 Esq., of that estate; one was shot at Rotherfield, near Tun- 

 bridge Wells, Kent, a female, about the first of January, 

 1850; another, a male about the same time and place; and 

 one near Chelsham Court, Godstone, Surrey, in the middle 

 of October, 1845: it was supposed to be one of a number 

 procured from America, which had been turned out near Wind- 

 sor by His Royal Highness Prince Albert. 



In Ireland, General Gabbit liberated many on his estates, 

 but it is said that in two years the breed was lost. 



In their native country they are migratory. 



The Virginian Partridge can be kept in confinement, and 

 has been known to breed in that state. They are taken in 

 large numbers for the table, being very much esteemed, and 

 are captured in various ways. They frequent the neigh- 

 bourhood of woods, but rarely the woods or forests themselves, 

 and conceal themselves among bushes, brushwood, and herbage, 

 from which they emerge to feed in the open fields; they 

 perch at times in low trees. In severe weather they come 



VOL. IV. Q 



