460 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ready almost at once to follow their parents in search of food ; and in the 

 autumn these broods often join into coveys for the winter. They are not 

 favourites of the sportsman, and the most practicable way of shooting them 

 is by driving. When followed by the guns the birds run quickly off, 

 seldom rising until out of shot, and always preferring to escape from 

 danger without using their wings. Instead of keeping together, the covey 

 scatter in all directions, disturbing the Common Partridge, which would 

 otherwise lie close for a short time, run with incredible speed towards the 

 hedges, to fly over them, and again alight to run quicker than before. 



The general colour of the upper parts, including the wings, of the Red- 

 legged Partridge is brown, shading into pale slate-grey on the crown and 

 forehead ; a broad stripe over the eye, the chin, and the upper throat are 

 nearly white ; the lores are black, and the white on the throat is margined 

 with black on the lower throat, the feathers of the upper breast being 

 brown with black centres; the lower breast is pale slate-grey, and the 

 belly and under tail-coverts are dull chestnut. Each feather on the flanks 

 is pale slate-grey, broadly barred with white, black, and light and dark 

 chestnut, the latter colour forming the terminal margin. The six outer- 

 most tail-feathers on each side are bright chestnut, and the remainder are 

 coloured like the back *. Bill, legs, toes, and a bare space round the eye 

 scarlet ; claws brown ; irides hazel. The female scarcely differs from the 

 male in colour, except that she is slightly duller and is without the rudi- 

 ments of a spur on the tarsus. Young in first plumage have the slate-grey 

 replaced by bufiish brown, and the black on the lower throat is not con- 

 tinuous. Birds of the year are intermediate between these two plumages. 



Although the Barbary Partridge has been included as a British bird by 

 many writers, and is even inserted without question in the ' Ibis ' list f, 

 it has not the slightest claim to be regarded as such. A specimen of this 

 bird was picked up dead near Melton Mowbray in April 1843 ( Yarrell, Hist. 

 Brit. B. ii. p. 400) ; several other examples have been obtained in Suflblk, 

 one in Yorkshire, and one in Cornwall. The range of this bird and the 

 points in which it difiers from the Red-legged Partridge have already been 

 noticed above. The examples obtained in this country leave little room 

 for doubt that they have escaped from confinement. 



* Ornithologists differ. as to the numher of the latter, the upper tail-coverts being 

 difficult to distinguish from them. Naumann and MacgiUivray consider four of these 

 feathers to helong to the tail, making the total number sixteen ; and in my opinion they 

 are correct, though Saunders states that this bird has only fourteen. 



t The inconceivable slovenliness of this publication is pointedly shown in its geogra- 

 phical distribution of these birds. The Red-legged Partridge being confined to Western 

 Europe, is said to be " found in Eastern and Southern Europe ;" and the Baibary Partridge 

 being exclusively confined to the western portion of North Africa, the island of Sardinia, 

 and the rock of Gibraltar, is said to " inhabit Southern Europe and Northern Africa." 



