COMMON PARTRIDGE. 285 



in the * Field,' is not to be depended on, for the great 

 majority of young females by which we mean birds of the 

 year have a well-developed chestnut horse-shoe, and in some, 

 for instance birds from Leicestershire, it is quite as large 

 and perfectly developed as in the majority of adult male birds. 

 Young females from Norfolk and Suffolk are, however, gene- 

 rally exceptions to this rule, and, like the majority of old 

 females, have merely a few chestnut spots on the middle of 

 the lower breast, and in this part of England it is rare to 

 meet with anything like a perfect horse-shoe in young birds of 

 this sex, while examples may be found without a trace of 

 chestnut, and are commonly known as birds with a white 

 horse-shoe. As remarked above, the birds of the year, whether 

 male or female, are easily distinguished from old birds by 

 having the first flight-feather pointed instead of rounded at 

 the extremity. The colour of the feet and toes is also, of 

 course, a good character for distinguishing young birds from 

 old ones in the earlier part of the season, but at the com- 

 mencement of hard weather the yellowish-brown feet, denoting 

 youth, having generally changed to bluish-grey, are perfectly 

 similar to those of the adult, while the pointed first flight- 

 feather is retained till the following autumn moult. The only 

 reliable character for distinguishing the sexes at all ages, 

 except in very young birds in their first plumage, is in the 

 markings of the lesser and median wing-coverts and scapulars, 

 the buff cross-bars in the female being an unmistakable mark, 

 and quite sufficient to distinguish her from a male at a 

 glance. It is now some years since we first drew attention 

 to these rather important differences, which had hitherto been 

 entirely overlooked, and we may now safely say that, though 

 many people, especially sportsmen, were at first disinclined to 

 believe in this character being a sexual difference, and tested 

 it severely, it has, so far, never been found to fail. To con- 

 vince gamekeepers of these facts is in most cases a hopeless 

 task that the horse-shoe mark on the breast is a certain 

 sign of the male is * bred in the bone,' having been handed 

 down as gospel for generations. One Scotch keeper in par- 

 ticular, at a place where we have enjoyed many a pleasant 

 day's Partridge shooting, rises before our mind, and the 

 remembrance of this excellent and extremely obstinate soul 



