3t3 " MARYLAND PARTRIDGE. 



XVII. PARTRIDGE. Gen. Birds, XXXVII. 



185. Maryland. Amr^s Partridge, Clayton, Ph. Tr. abridg.ln- 590. — Laiu/on, 1^0.— Cat ejbj, Apf^ 



plate xli. — Du Pratx, ii. 86. 

 Tetrao Virginianus, Lin. Syjl. 277. 



Le Perdrix d'Amerique, Brijfon, i. 231. — Et de la Nouvelle Angleterre, 229. — I>e 

 Buffon, ii. 447. 



P, 



With white cheeks and throat, bounded by a line of black on 

 all fides, and marked with another paffing beneath each eye : 

 breaft whitifh, prettily marked with femicircular fpots of black : 

 upper part of the breaft, coverts of wings, fcapulars, and coverts 

 of tail, bright bay, edged with fmaTl black and white fpots ; fcapu- 

 lars ftriped with yellowifli white : primaries and tail of a light 

 afh' color. 



The head of the female agrees in the white marks of the male, 

 but the boundaries are ferruginous. There is alfo more red on the 

 breaft. In other refpefts the colors nearly correfpond. In Size, 

 above half as big again as the Englijh Quail. 

 Place. Frequent from Canada to the moft fouthern parts of North Ame- 



rica., perhaps to Mexico. Are great breeders, and are feen in covies 

 of four or five and twenty. Breed the latter end oi April, or be- 

 ginning of May. Colleft, towards the beginning of June, in great 

 flocks, and take to the orchards, where they perch when difturbed. 

 Feed much on buckrwheat; grow fat, and are excellent meat. Mi- 

 grate from Nova Scotia, at approach of winter, to the Ibuthern pro- 

 viHces J but numbers refide in the latter the whole year. The males 

 iiave a note twi<;e repeated, which they emit, while the females are 



fitting. 



