28 GALLING. 



which they use in their combats of gallantry. Legs and 

 tarsi strong, and of moderate length, and the former more 

 muscular than in birds which are more on the wing. 



Bill rather short, but strong and convex, the upper man- 

 dible bent wholly or at the tip, and projecting over the under 

 one. Nostrils lateral, protected by a scale, and sometimes by 

 feathers, wings mostly short in proportion to the weight of 

 the body, and very concave on their under sides ; hence the 

 flight seems laborious and fluttering, and is performed with a 

 peculiar noise, arising from the rapid motion of the short and 

 hollow wings. 



Tail consisting of from ten to eighteen feathers ; and in 

 the male birds often highly coloured, and with ornamental 

 feathers. 



Food, very indiscriminate, seeds, grains, berries, buds, 

 insects, and succulent vegetable substances and soft animal 

 ones of all kinds ; but varying of course with the haunts of 

 the different species. 



Eggs, generally numerous, and much relished as food, as is 

 also the muscular fibre, which is sweeter and more whole- 

 some than that of any other order of birds. The young, 

 when they first appear, are covered with down, and they are 

 at once able to follow the parent birds, some, as the com- 

 mon field partridge, with a portion of the shell upon the 

 body. 



Their habits are, to seek their food generally, if not exclu- 

 sively, upon the ground ; to deposit their eggs there in very 

 rude nests, though some few nestle in trees or bushes ; to 

 feed in the morning, and again towards sunset : to scrape, and 

 roll and bathe their feathers in the dust, while basking in the 

 mid-day sun ; and to squat upon the ground, or perch on 

 trees, during the night. Some of them pair for the season, 

 and the family keep together in a covey till next pairing 

 time ; others are polygamous, or have a number of females 



