PARTRIDGE. 285 



parts of the earth, and appear where they were never seen before;* 

 but the most esteemed food is ant's eggs, without which the young 

 are not readily brought up, when hatched under hens in confinement; 

 and which mode is obliged to be taken, as the Common Partridge 

 does not accommodate itself to domesticity in the manner of the Red 

 Species.f A common domestic Hen will frequently rear as many as 

 twenty-five young birds. 



A.~Perdix cinereo alba, Bris.u 223. A- Id. 8vo. i. 62. Gerin. iii. 252. 

 Perdrix gris-blanche, Buf. ii. 415. Frisch, t. 115. Gen. Syn. iv. 763. 



The general colour of the plumage of this bird is grey, with the 

 same markings, but more faint ; it is found among flocks of the 

 Common Partridge, and readily pairs with that bird. 



The Varieties between the common dress, and totally white, are 

 endless. In the Leverian Museum was one of a pale cream-colourj 

 and another with the head and half the neck brownish ash-colour, 

 with darker streaks ; round the neck a white collar ; the under parts 

 white ; the rest of the bird like the Common Sort, but very pale ; 

 another Variety wholly of a dun-colour; and a fourth very beauti- 

 fully variegated ; the crown and nape brown, with rufous spots ; 

 between the eyes, the chin, and throat, rufous; fore part of the neck 

 and breast cinereous, minutely speckled with black ; on the breast a 

 horse-shoe; belly and vent yellowish white; the upper parts like the 

 the common plumage, and more elegantly variegated ; but the most 

 common Variety is wholly white, of which we have innumerable 

 instances. Buflbn mentions, that ten or twelve entirely white have 



* Arct. Zool. f Yet that they may be made perfectly tame is instanced in 



" a certain Sussex Man, that had, by his industry, made a covey of Partridges so tame, 

 " that he drave them before him, upon a wager, out of that country to London, though 

 " they were absolutely free, and had their wings grown."— Will. Orn. p. 167. 



