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Genus PERDIX. 



Perdix, Brisson, Orn. i. p. 219 (1760). 



Tetrao apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 276 (1766). 



Starna apud Bonaparte, Cornp. List, p. 43 (1838). 



The true Partridges are restricted to the Paleearctic Region, only one species being found as a 

 resident in the western division of that region. 



They are amongst the best-known and most valued of our game-birds, and are found in 

 cultivated ground and open localities where there is scrub or other cover. They walk with ease, 

 consort together in coveys, and when flushed rise with a whirring sound. Their flight is swift, 

 direct, and strong ; and they will sometimes traverse considerable distances, though they generally 

 prefer to drop into the nearest available cover. They feed on seeds, shoots, insects, &c, which 

 they pick up on the ground. They never perch, like their Red-legged allies, on trees, but, like 

 them, are fond of dusting and sunning themselves in warm, sandy places. They nest on the 

 ground, their nest being a depression scratched in the soil and lined with grass &c, and deposit 

 numerous pale olivaceous-brown eggs. The young when hatched are able to run about, and to 

 pick up food for themselves, but are for some time carefully tended by their parents. 



Perdix cinerea, the type of the genus, has the bill short, stout, depressed towards the tip, 

 which is rounded and sharp-edged ; nostrils basal, lateral, operculate, linear in front, circular 

 behind, the nasal groove broad and feathered ; a small space behind the eye bare ; wings short, 

 broad, curved, the first quill shorter than the sixth, the third longest ; tail short, rounded ; legs 

 strong, rather short, the tarsus anteriorly scutellate, the males having usually a knob behind ; 

 toes stout, the hind toe small, elevated, the anterior ones webbed at the base ; claws moderate, 

 curved, with convex ridge, rather obtuse. 



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