GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



209 



of the throat, the centre of which is pure white. The eye is light brown, the eye-ring cinnabar-red, 

 beak crimson, and foot pale carmine-red. The female is recognisable from her mate by the inferiority 

 of her size, and is without the spur-like wart upon her tarsus. The male is fourteen inches and a- half 

 long and twenty broad ; his wing measures six and the tail four inches and a half. 



This bird inhabits France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the Channel Islands, and has been recently 

 introduced into England, where it is now plentiful. It is more vnld than the Common Partridge, and 

 stronger on the mng, and will run sturdily before the dogs. It prefers heaths, commons, and waste 







R?-r>?^. 



THE COMMON PARTRIDGE {Perciix dnerea, or Starna cinerea). ONE-THIRD NATURAL SIZE. 



land, but also frequents turnip fields. The nest is slightly formed of grass and leaves, and placed in a 

 field of corn or grass. " Two or three instances are recorded," says Mr. Yarrell, " in which a nest 

 with eggs were found in the thatch, or upon the top of low stacks." 



The eggs are of a reddish yellow-white, spotted and speckled with reddish brown, one inch and 

 seven and a half lines long, and one inch and three lines broad, and from fifteen to eighteen in 

 number. The young leave the nest soon after they are hatched. Their food is the same as that of 

 the Common Partridge. 



THE BARBARY PARTRIDGE. 

 The Barbary Partridge ( Caccabis petrosa), another member of the above group, is principal!}' 

 recognisable by the reddish brown band, spotted with white, that encircles its throat. The brow and 

 VOL. III. — 106 



