SEPTEMBER 195 



The feathers of a bird's wing are ranged in three 

 groups (1) the primaries or pen-feathers, (2) the 

 secondaries or cubitals, (3) the median and lesser 

 wing coverts and the acapulars. In the male par- 

 tridge the median feathers are dark, with a chestnut 

 stain on the inner web, a clear stripe of buff down the 

 shaft, and no light cross-bars. Those of the female, in 

 addition to the light shaft-stripe, have two or three 

 buff cross-bars. In the adult male, also, the feathers of 

 the neck are bluish-grey, with no light shaft-stripe ; in 

 the female they are olive-brown, with a light stripe 

 down the shaft. These differences are constant and 

 trustworthy. 



To distinguish a bird of the year from an older bird 

 is easy enough till Christmas time, when the yellowish 

 feet and toes of the young partridge begin to assume 

 the slaty-blue tinge of the adult. Very few persons 

 know how to distinguish the age of a partridge after 

 the turn of the year. An infallible index is the shape 

 of the first pen-feather, which in an old bird is rounded 

 at the end, but in a young bird is pointed, and remains 

 so till the moult of the second autumn. 



XLVII 



* Stupid woman ! She doesn't know any better.' 

 It was refreshing to hear this remark spoken by 

 one well-dressed lady about another, not Borrowed 

 nearly so well-dressed, but wearing a Humes 

 showy aigrette of ' ospreys ' in her hat. Refreshing 

 because it showed that the patient and persistent 



