558 APPENDIX. VI. 



As we findj from these citations, that so 

 many different sorts of birds have learned to 



Ovid, therefore, speaking of the perdix, says, 

 " ponitque in seplbus ova,"* 



where the common partridge is seldom known to build. 



Pliny again informs us, " perdices spina & frutice sic mu- 

 " niunt receptaculum, ut contra feras abunde valentur,"f as also 

 in the 52d chapter of his tenth book, that the perdix lay white 

 eggs, which is not true of the common partridge. 



But there are not wanting other proofs of the conjecture I 

 have here made. 



Aristotle speaking of this same bird, says, Tojv [xvj inpliy.wj, o< 



Now, the word, x«>;xa?i?ouo-i is clearly formed from the call 

 of the bird alluded to, which does not at all resemble that of the 

 common partridge. 



Thus also the author of the Elegy on the Nightingale, who is 

 supposed by some to be Ovid, hath the following line : 



" Caccahat hinc perdix, hinc gratitat improbus anser." 

 80 that the call of the bird must have had something very parti- 

 cular, and have answered nearly, to the words x«zxa§/t£< and cac- 

 calat. 



I find, indeed, that 31. de Buffon contends§ that the ^^p/^ 

 of Aristotle does not mean the common partridge, but the larfa- 

 velle, with regard to which, I shall not enter into any discussion, 

 but only observe, that most of his references are inaccurate, 

 and that he entirely mistakes the materials of which the nest is 

 composed, according to Aristotle's sixth book, .ind first chapter. 



But the strongest proof that perdix signifies the red legged par- 



* Ovid. Met, Lib. VIII. 1, 25S. I shall also refer to 1. 237, of the same 

 book : 



'■' Garrula ramosa prospexit ab ilice perdix :" 

 35 it is well known that the common partridge never perches upon a tre*. 



t Lib. X. c. 2-3. I Lib. iv. c. 9- § Orn. T. II. p. 422. 



