46 GALLDLE. 



PARTRIDGE (Perdrix). 



There are two British species of partridges, the common, 

 or ash-coloured (cinerea), and the Guernsey, or red-legged 

 (rufa)') hut the latter is not abundant in the isles in the 

 Channel, and it is rare on the mainland, yet it is said to be 

 increasing in Sussex and Suffolk. 



COMMON PARTRIDGE. 



The common partridge is so well known, that description 

 is hardly necessary. Bill and naked parts, with the exception 

 of the spot behind the eye, which is red, bluish grey. Throat, 

 cheeks, and over the eyes, reddish orange. Neck and breast 

 silver grey, with fine zigzag black lines. The same colour 

 continued to the flanks ; but the markings larger and brown. 

 A large reddish brown horse-shoe spot on the belly. The 

 scapulars and coverts have the shafts bright yellowish brown, 

 and the webs darker and mottled, but lighter at the edges, 

 which gives their feathers a very distinct and neat appear- 

 ance. The quills are greyish black, leaved with brown. The 

 back, rump, and middle feathers of the tail, are mottled with 

 black lines and spots, the outer feathers are the same brown 

 as the others, but without mottling. There are twenty-three 

 quills in the wings, the fifth the longest ; and sixteen feathers 

 in the tail, of nearly equal length. The female bird is smaller, 

 has the orange brown on the throat pale, the feathers on the 

 head edged with white, the belly spot less defined, and the 

 back more minutely mottled. 



As might be expected in a bird, which, although not 

 domesticated/ yet follows cultivation, and appears to depend 

 upon it, the partridge is more affected by local circumstances, 

 than those birds that avoid the neighbourhood of man. 

 Where cultivation is more successful, and the fields more 

 productive, partridges are most abundant, largest, and of the 



