THE GAME-BIRDS AND RAILS 



403 



The Common Partridge is the more 

 abundant of the two species. Though more 

 sober in coloration, it is still a beautiful bird. 

 The " horse-shoe " mark, borne on the breast, 

 so characteristic of this bird, is not con- 

 fined to the males, as is generally believed. 

 " Yielding," says Professor Newton, " perhaps 

 in economic importance to the red grouse, 

 what may be called the social influence of 

 the partridge is greater than that excited by 

 any other wild bird." 



This bird displays great courage and 

 affection in defence of its eggs or young. 

 A story illustrating this is told of a gentle- 

 man, who, " whilst superintending his plough- 

 men, saw a partridge glide off her nest, so 

 near the foot of one of his plough-horses 

 that he thought the eggs must be crushed ; 

 this, however, was not the case. . . . He 

 saw the old bird return to her nest the 

 instant he left the spot. It was evident 

 that the next round of the plough must 

 bury the eggs and nest in the furrow. His 

 surprise was great when, returning with the 

 plough, he came to the spot and saw the 

 nest indeed, but the eggs and bird were gone. 



eg-es 





Mofo by W. P. Danda, F.Z.S. 



HIMALAYAN 



M O N A L 



In some parts of Indij this bird has been exterminated^ ozving to the 

 demands oj the plume-market 



Fhato by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S. 



HIMALAYAN MONAL 



The female of the monal is t^uite soberly clad 



An idea struck him that she had removed her 

 and he found her, before he left the field, sit- 

 ting under the hedge upon twenty-one eggs. . . . 

 The round of ploughing had occupied about twenty 

 minutes, in which time she, probably aided by the 

 cock bird, had removed the twenty-one eggs to a 

 distance of about fort}^ yards." 



The Red-legged Partridges, their allies the 

 FRANCOLlNS,and the Grey Partridges areall ground- 

 birds ; the Tree-partridges, as the name implies, are 

 not, or at least less completely so — hence their 

 mention here. They are natives of the Indo-Chinese 

 countries, and the islands of Java, Borneo, and Formosa. 



The Quail is a little-known British bird, very like 

 a small partridge in appearance. Enormous numbers, 

 Professor Newton tells us, " are netted on the Conti- 

 nent, especially in the spring migration. The captives 

 are exposed in the poulterers' shops, confined in long, 

 cloth-covered cages, with a feeding-trough in front." 

 The bulk " of these are males, which are the first to 

 arrive, and advantage is taken of this circumstance by 

 the bird-catchers, who decoy hundreds into their nets 

 by imitating the call-note of the female. It has been 

 stated that in the small island of Capri, in the Bay 

 of Naples, 160,000 have been netted in a single 

 season, and even larger numbers are on record." An 

 idea of the vast numbers which travel together in 



