PARTRIDGES AND QUAILS. 45 



woods, coppices, and thick brakes, replacing in the lowlands 

 the cock of the woods which has become extinct in the high- 

 lands, the partridges and quails inhabit next to the black 

 grous. This grous inhabits down to the verge of cultivation, 

 and the partridge takes up its abode within that verge, seeks 

 its food where man cultivates, and inhabits so near his dwell- 

 ing, that it borders closely upon the domesticated poultry, 

 and sometimes mixes with them in their excursions. The 

 quail seeks its food in similar places, but it comes not quite so 

 near the habitations of man, is less generally distributed over 

 the country, and remains only for a season. 



The general characters are : the bill short, strong, naked at 

 the base, the upper mandible curved, and the point extending 

 downwards over the under one, well adapted for pecking in 

 the ground. The opening of the nostrils naked of feathers; 

 but, as is the case in all birds that run among herbage, 

 lateral, and defended by a scale. The body compact, but 

 fusiform, or curved above, below, and laterally, tapering to 

 both extremities, borne horizontally in running, and thus 

 presenting the least resistance to the air, and gliding in the 

 easiest manner through the herbage. Feet with three toes 

 before, united by membrane as far as the first joint ; the hind 

 toe articulated farther up the tarsus than in grous; and the 

 whole foot better adapted for running upon soft ground. 

 The tarsus with tubercles in the partridge, and smooth in the 

 quail. Tail very short in both, somewhat square in the par- 

 tridge, but rounded in the quail, and containing four feathers 

 fewer. Wings different : those of the partridge concave and 

 rounded, with the fourth quill the longest; more extended 

 and pointed, with the first feather longest, in the quail; the 

 one fitted for short flights only, the other adapted for con- 

 siderable distances. The extent of the wings is double the 

 length of the body in the quail, and only one and a half times 

 in the partridge. 



