THE COCK AND THE HEN 129 



Not all familiar with partridges know how to dis- 

 tinguish the cocks from the hens by the few minute 

 differences in plumage. In flight the birds 



The Coek are S o alike in size that it is impossible to 



and the . ., . 



Hen ^ e " them apart unless, perhaps, they are 



in pairs, and one goes away ahead of the 

 other on being put up, when the cock may be the 

 hindmost bird. The usual test of sex is the chestnut 

 horseshoe of the breast. The cocks display a fine 

 bright horseshoe badge, while the hens have a 

 few chestnut spots on a whitish ground. However, 

 some insist that this test is not always infallible. 

 One to be trusted absolutely, so far as we know, is 

 the striking difference in the lesser and median wing 

 coverts. In each case there is a light buff stripe 

 down the shaft ; but the cock's feathers have a 

 chestnut stain which is lacking in the hen's feathers, 

 while the hen's feathers have zigzag buff cross-bars 

 (of the same hue as the shaft stripe), which are lack- 

 ing in the cock's feathers. There are other differences 

 which the experienced eye sees at once ; and there are 

 differences also in the neck feathers. In the adult 

 cock they are grey, with no shaft stripe ; in the hen 

 they are brown, with a light shaft stripe. The age 

 of birds is to be determined to a certain extent quite 

 simply. Those with bright yellow legs are birds of the 

 year. Those with their first pen-feathers rounded 

 are more than a year old, for in the young birds these 

 feathers are pointed at the tip. 



