THE PARTRIDGE 



PERDIX CINEREA 



LOCAL names in surrounding counties : 



STATUS IN BRITISH AVIFAUNA : A common and widely 

 distributed resident in all districts where it is preserved. 



RADIAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 

 PAUL'S : Almost precisely the same remarks apply to the 

 distribution of the Partridge in the Metropolitan area as 

 those given concerning that of the Pheasant. The bird 

 may be met with occasionally at Wimbledon and in 

 Richmond Park, and is found in the Croydon and Horsen- 

 den district. It wanders from time to time into localities 

 where it is not preserved, but otherwise the Partridge only 

 haunts ground where it is afforded protection from man. 

 Under these conditions it is a fairly common resident in 

 the remoter portions of our radius. 



In walking over the fields or along the sides of the 

 thick, low hedges where the bottoms are full of tangled 

 cover the student may be occasionally startled by the 

 sudden rising of the Partridge, which with a rattle and 

 a whistling whirr hurries alarmed away. During the 

 greater part of the year the bird lives in coveys or flocks- 

 that is to say, until they become decimated by the gunner 

 haunting the turnip-fields, stubbles, rough, open com- 

 mons, and newly sown grain-lands. It is a terrestrial 

 species, spending its whole existence upon the ground, 

 where it roosts. It is shy and wary, skulking low amongst 

 the herbage when alarmed, and often runs quickly 

 through the cover to escape in preference to flying, only 

 using its wings when compelled or when suddenly dis- 

 turbed. Its flight is powerful and prolonged, the wing- 

 beats rapid and noisy, and occasionally the bird skims 

 for a long distance on stiff and arched pinions. The call- 

 note of the Partridge is a shrill kirr-rr-ric, uttered by both 

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