i8 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



The plumage of the Partridge varies considerably in different localities. 

 Where the land is barren the birds are but small in size and grey in colour. In 

 more cultivated districts they become of a much richer chestnut colour. The 

 colours vary so much in their distribution on the birds, that the distinction between 

 the sexes has been generally mistaken. Mr. Ogilvie Grant, of the British 

 Museum, has made the sexual plumage of the Partridge a subject of very careful 

 attention. In a most valuable illustrated article, published in the "Field," of 

 November 21st, 1891, he states that there are few British Birds of which less is 

 known regarding the real distinctions and changes of plumage, by which a male 

 can always be distinguished from a female. Most persons are under the impression 

 that the hen Partridge has no chestnut horse-shoe mark on the breast, though 

 possibly a few chestnut feathers may exist. In this exhaustive paper Mr. Ogilvie 

 Grant examines the statements that all the standard authorities, such as Mac- 

 gillivray, Yarrell, Dresser, Seebohm, and Saunders have made on the subject, and 

 then gives the results of his own careful examination, which prove that the horse- 

 shoe mark is found in both males and females, and he states definitely that : — 



" In the Partridges which I have examined, it appears that in the great 

 majority of young female specimens, the horse-shoe mark on the breast is well 

 developed, though in some it is represented by a few chestnut spots, and in some 

 rare instances absent. 



In the old female birds the contrary obtains, and in the great majority the 

 horse-shoe is represented by a small patch of chestnut spots at the base of the 

 breast, while more rarely all trace of chestnut is absent. It would thus appear 

 that, though young females possess a well developed horse-shoe on the breast, this 

 character becomes less marked at each successive autumn moult, and entirely 

 disappears in some. 



The popular idea among sportsmen, that all Partridges with a well developed 

 horse-shoe patch are males, has, I suspect, frequently proved disastrous to the 

 young hens, and I know of more than one instance in which game preservers, 

 disappointed in the number of their birds, and unable to account for their scarcity, 

 have imagined their ground to be overstocked with old cocks, and, in consequence, 

 have given orders to their keepers to shoot as many Partridges with the horse- 

 shoe mark as possible. Probably the result was not equal to their expectations, 

 for there can be no doubt that a large number of the birds destroyed must have 

 been young hens, which would have formed the breeding stock for the following 

 season. It is thus clear that the presence or absence of the horse-shoe mark is 

 not a sexual distinction ; or at least, can only be considered as of secondary 

 importance, in combination with other characters which I shall now mention." 



