THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. 875 



PERDIX PERDIX 



491. Perdix perdix perdix (L.)— THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. 



Tetrao Perdix Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i, p. 160 (175 — Europe. 



Restricted typical locality : Sweden). 



Perdix cinerea Latham, Yarrell, in, p. 105 ; Saunders, p. 501. 



Description (Plate 13). Adult male. Winter. — Fore-head, lores, 

 stripe over eye, chin and throat uniform yellowish-chestnut, paler 

 on throat (a few black feathers at base of culmen and a small patch 

 of white immediately under eye) ; crown, nape and ear-coverts 

 buff-brown, feathers basally blackish and distally with narrow drop- 

 like median streaks of buff, those immediately adjoining chestnut 

 at sides of fore-part of crown greyish ; back and sides of neck and 

 upper-mantle grey more or less washed rufous-buff with fine wavy 

 bars of black ; mantle, back, rump and upper tail-coverts much 

 more buff and feathers with dark chestnut penultimate sagittate 

 bars becoming wide on rump and upper tail-coverts ; breast grey 

 much purer than back of neck and only occasionally tinged buff 

 with very fine wavy black bars, feathers at sides of breast with 

 penultimate dark chestnut bands ; flanks more tinged buff, chest- 

 nut bands very broad and feathers with fine whitish shaft -lines ; 

 in middle of lower-breast a large horse-shoe shaped patch of dark 

 chestnut, feathers having long chestnut tips and white bases, in 

 centre of horse -shoe grey finely barred black ; middle of belly and 

 vent white ; under tail-coverts pale buff speckled black, longer 

 feathers with whitish shaft-lines and bases somewhat chestnut ; 

 axillaries and outer under wing-coverts white finely speckled 

 dusky-black, rest of coverts white ; tail chestnut, narrowly tipped 

 buff, central two pairs pale buff thickly vermiculated and barred 

 brown-black, with chestnut shaft-streak of varying width, next pair 

 or two with chestnut centres and vermiculated tips and edges ; 

 primaries and primary-coverts dark brown with pale buff, widely 

 spaced bars narrow and often broken into spots ; secondaries more 

 vermiculated and tinged rufous on outer webs and tips and inner 

 edges greyish and buff ; innermost secondaries, scapulars and wing- 

 coverts with conspicuous pale buff median stripes, tips buff with 

 very fine wavy black bars, basal portion of feathers chestnut and 

 black, with widely-spaced, narrow, buff bars but these absent from 

 median and lesser coverts. This plumage is acquired by complete 

 moult July to Nov., often not quite complete Dec. Summer. — A 

 partial moult varying in individuals and confined to comparatively 

 few feathers chiefly on neck, upper-mantle and throat and here and 

 there one on body takes place May-June, sometimes April. New 

 feathers on sides and back of neck buffish-grey with pale shaft-lines. 

 Abrasion causes upper -parts to become greyer and less buff in 

 summer than when plumage is fresher.* 



* A variable but frequently recurring rufous variety (<J and $) has been 

 named Perdix montana Brisson, Orn., i, p. 224, 1760. 



