2.10 CASSELL'S BOOK OF BIRDS. 



sides of the head are light grey, shading to a blueish tint on the wing ; the throat and eyebrows are 

 whitish grey, the breast is of a blueish tint, shaded with grey, the thighs are striped .yellowish brown 

 and black ; the rest of the under side is blueish grey. Some ot the mantle-feathers are marked with 

 reddish grey ; the eye, beak, and foot of this bird are similarly coloured to those of its congeners. Its 

 size is somewhat less than that of the species already described. The Barbary Partridge inhabits 

 Greece, Sardinia, and occasionally the South of France ; it is numerously met with in North-western 

 Africa. Naturalists are by no means agreed as to the situations it prefers, some infonning us 

 that it selects lowland districts or rising ground in the vicinity of corn-fields, whilst on the contrary, 

 Bolle, who is particularly accurate in his observations, states that in the Canary Islands it quite as 

 frequently lives and breeds on rocky heights as in the valleys and open country. This savoury game 

 we are told by the last-mentioned authority, swarms in such numbers on four of the Canary Islands as 

 to be occasionally regarded as an intolerable nuisance. Salvadori informs us that the period of 

 incubation commences early in February, and Bolle, that the eggs, from four to twelve in number, are 

 hatched in t^venty-two days. After the breeding season the pairs collect into parties, but if alarmed 

 and separated appear to be at little trouble to seek for and rejoin their former companions. 



THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. 



The Common Partridge {Perdix dtierea, or Starna cinerea) is distinguishable from the above 

 birds by the coloration of its plumage, by the plates protecting the feet forming two distinct rows 

 both before and behind, by the absence of the spur-like wart on the tarsus, and by the formation of 

 its wing, the third, fourth, and fifth quills of which are longer than the rest ; the tail is composed of 

 sixteen or eighteen feathers. In this species the brow, a broad line above and behind the eye, and 

 the sides of the head and throat, are light rust-red, the rest of the head is brown, marked with yellow, 

 and the grey beak is striped \\'ith rust-red ; the feathers are delicately traced with black zig-zag lines, 

 and have light shafts : a broad dark band, varied with black, adorns the breast, and passes along both 

 sides of the belly, where it is interrupted by various rust-red streaks, surrounded by a white line. 

 The white belly has a large hofseshoe-shaped brown spot at its centre ; the rump-feathers and those in 

 the centre of the tail are streaked with shades of brown ; the primary quills are pale brownish black, 

 spotted with reddish yellow. The eye is nut-brown, the eye-space and stripe that passes behind it 

 are both red, the beak is blueish grey, and the foot reddish grey or bro^vn ; the female is smaller than 

 her mate, and less pleasing in her colour : her back is darker, and her belly without the brown patch 

 In its centre. The male is twelve inches long and twenty broad, and the wing measures six, and the 

 tail three inches. 



The Common Partridge is almost exclusively a European bird. Mr. Gould states that in his 

 extensive observations he has never met with a single species either from Africa or Asia. Temminck, 

 however, tells us that it visits Egypt and the shores of Barbary, and Russian naturalists have included 

 it among the birds found between the Caspian and Black Seas, south of the Caucasus. 



In Europe it is extensively distributed in all suitable localities, and inhabits all the level parts 

 of England and Scotland. 



It frequents cultivated land and corn-fields, ranging sometimes into neighbouring waste ground 

 covered with furze and broom. It runs with great rapidity when alarmed, but often squats close to 

 the ground and flies off when nearly approached. The food of the Partridge consists of com, grain 

 of various kinds, peas, seeds, and tender shoots of grass ; it also consumes insects and larvse of many 

 kinds, that would otherivise injure the crops. It feeds principally in the early morning and late in 

 the evening, when coveys of these birds may be met with in fields of com or stubble, according to 

 the season. During the day they frequent pasture lands, and sun and dust themselves in dry bare 



