56 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 
of an unmistakable character, and quite sufficient 
to distinguish the hen at a glance. The partridge 
assumes the adult plumage of these parts at the first 
moult ; consequently, the distinctions pointed out by 
Mr. Grant are strongly marked in the majority of birds 
before the beginning of the shooting season. 
Mr. Grant’s researches go to prove, also, that the 
horse-shoe mark on the breast is found in birds of 
both sexes, although it is more liable to vary in size in 
the female than in the male. In the great majority 
of young female birds examined the horse-shoe 
mark was well developed, although in some it was 
represented by a few chestnut spots. In the old 
female birds the contrary obtains. In the great 
majority of old hens, the chestnut horse-shoe is 
represented by a small patch of chestnut mixed with 
white. Sometimes the chestnut entirely disappears, 
giving place to a pure white horse-shoe. 
Black varieties of the partridge are exceedingly 
rare. Mr. H. A. Digby records two melanistic 
examples obtained in 1891 and in 1888 respectively. 
Of these, the first was ofa very dark colour, ‘ the neck, 
breast and legs looking exactly as if the bird had 
been covered with soot, which had been washed off 
leaving all the light feathers slate-coloured, and the 
head very dark, the horse-shoe being of the natural 
