COMMON or GREY PARTRIDGE. 
PERDIX CINEREA, Lath. 
Tetrao perdix, Linn. S. N. i. p. 276 (1766). 
Perdix cinerea, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. pt. 1, p. 290 (1787) ; 
Naum. vi. p. 477; Macg. i. p. 218; Hewitson, i. p. 281; 
Yarr. ed. 4, iil. p. 105; Dresser, vii. p. 181. 
Perdrix grise, French; Reb-Feldhuhn, German; Perdiz 
gris, Pardilla, Fresana, Spanish. 
This well-known bird is to be met with more or less 
frequently in all parts of Great Britain, except the more 
remote groups of islands, such as the Shetlands and 
Outer Hebrides; and is also indigenous, although 
comparatively scarce, in Ireland. Draining and careful 
cultivation are very favourable to the increase of this 
species, and under these conditions and with strict 
preservation Partridges have, in some of our English 
counties, become extraordinarily abundant. 
The largest bag of these birds, of which I have any 
record, was made by seven guns on a large estate in 
Hampshire in four consecutive days of October 1887, 
and amounted to 4079, of which number 1337 were 
killed in one day; I need hardly say that these results 
were obtained by driving. 
Our Partridge is found throughout Europe, with the 
exception of the extreme north-east and south and the 
islands of the Mediterranean. The plumage and size of 
this species vary greatly according to locality, and I 
may say that the subjects of the accompanying Plate 
were unusually light-coloured specimens. 
