292 PARTRIDGE. 



Inhabits various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa ; in many parts 

 of Germany,* France, Spain, and Italy; the Islands of Madeira,! 

 Guernsey, J and Jersey, &c. also the Island of St. Helena ;|| is fond 

 of mountainous situations, well covered with wood, and the flesh is 

 much esteemed. The Red Partridges difler from the Common ones, 

 as they collect in flocks, which the latter are never known to do, for 

 though twenty or more may be seen together, they are of the same 

 brood ; nor is it certain that two broods ever unite : the Red ones are 

 also found at times to perch on trees, which is never the case with the 

 Common. 



The Red Sort will increase in our Menageries, though not with 

 the same facility as Pheasants, as they neither bear confinement well, 

 nor fatten kindly in that state, and many of the young die before they 

 arrive at maturity. § Tournefort, however, speaks of their becoming 

 so tame in the Island of Scio, as to be driven to seek their food in the 

 fields, like sheep, and that each family can collect its own with a 

 whistle ; ^f and he further observes, that they are in such plenty in 

 the Island of Nansio, as to be the pest of the inhabitants, who collect 

 as many eggs** as possible every year, in order to lessen the breed* 

 as they sometimes have eaten up the fruits of the harvest. ft 



The Red Partridges are often used as we do Cocks, for the 

 rational amusement of butchering each other ! and we are told, that 

 this pastime is common to the present day in the Isle of Cyprus. 



This bird is now and then met with at large in England, but we 

 believe they do not breed freely, though there seems to be no good 

 reason why they should not, in the warmer parts of it. X+ 



* Kramer remarks, that none of these are found in Austria. 



t Forst. Voy. i. p. 26. J Although this Island has given name to the bird, 



it is very scarce there, but in Jersey is in sufficient plenty. 



|| Forst. Voy. ii. 568. § Hist, des Ois. % Voy. * * Id. 



ft The egg exceeds in size that of the Common Partridge, flesh-colour, tinged, and 

 blotched with a darker colour. 



XX I nave known them to be killed in Hampshire, Berkshire, and Dorsetshire, and two 

 or three times in Kent; to which Colonel Montagu adds, about Ipswich, in Suffolk. 



