CHAPTER VI. 



Partridges. 



With the bhds discussed in the last chapter 

 the series of pheasants comes to an end, and we 

 enter on the consideration of the various partridges. 

 These are, as was said in the Introduction, short- 

 tailed birds, usually much smaller than pheasants. 

 They fall into several very -natural generic groups, 

 some containing only one Indian species each. 

 There is some difficulty for the beginner in making 

 them out, for the males are generally plain and 

 much like the females, and do not present those 

 striking characteristics which make the various 

 cock pheasants referable to their proper genera 

 at once. But with a little trouble partridges are 

 not more difficult correctly to identify than are 

 hen pheasants. 



Taking as" partridges all the short-tailed game 

 birds with a wing over five inches long — under that 

 size they rank as quails — we find that they may 

 again be subdivided, as were the pheasants, by 

 the length of tail. All partridges have rather 

 short tails, but in some the tail is very short and 

 not a very noticeable feature. 



Among the longer-tailed partridges, in which 

 the tail is more than half the length of the closed 

 wing, we find the Snow-cocks, the Snow-partridge, 

 the Bamboo-partridge, the Spur-fowls, the Chukor, 



