THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. bit 



pale yellow-buff ; rest of under -parts slightly yellower, bases of 

 down sooty. Down is replaced by juvenile feathers. 



Juvenile. Male and female. — Crown black-brown finely 

 streaked buff, each feather having buff shaft-streak ; back of neck, 

 mantle, back, rump and upper tail-coverts buff -brown with whitish 

 to pale buff shaft-streaks inconspicuously margined blackish ; lores 

 and sides of head dark brown streaked whitish ; chin, throat and 

 centre of belly whitish to pale buff ; breast, sides and flanks and 

 under tail-coverts brown-buff slightly paler than mantle ard with 

 whiter shaft-streaks, faintly margined brown on flanks ; i A much 

 like adult but feathers tipped buff and with subterminal dusky bar 

 and spots and central ones speckled and barred dusky ; primaries 

 brown with pale buff tips and widely spaced bars on outer webs ; 

 secondaries with pale buff bars extending across both webs and 

 vermiculated brown, shafts pale buff ; scapulars, inner secondaries 

 and wing-coverts brown-buff with wide brown-black bars and 

 mottlings and pale shaft-streaks widening to white spots at tips of 

 feathers. 



First winter. Male and female. — Like adults and not to be 

 distinguished when moult is complete except by more pointed tips 

 of 1st and 2nd primaries. Females sometimes have more chestnut 

 on breast than adult females. The juvenile plumage is completely 

 moulted commencing when bird is about half grown, but two outer 

 primaries, which are not full grown when inner primaries and body 

 commence to moult, and are like adult except for more pointed tips 

 are not shed. Moult sometimes not complete until Jan. 



Measurements and structure. — $ wing 150-162 mm., tail 73-83, 

 tarsus 38-42, bill from feathers 13-16 (22 British measured). $ wing 

 150-158, tail 73-78. Primaries : 3rd and 4th longest, 5th as 

 long or 1-3 mm. shorter, 1st 12-20 shorter, 2nd 2-10 shorter, 6th 

 3-8 shorter ; outer webs of 1st to 7th very narrow, of 2nd to 7th 

 emarginated basally and inner webs of 1st to 5th emarginated 

 basally. Tail rounded, 18 feathers, tips rounded. Longest upper 

 and under tail-coverts nearly as long as tail. Hind toe small and 

 elevated, three front ones slightly webbed at base, claws little curved 

 and somewhat dilated. Bill stout, culmen curved and edges and 

 tip of upper thin and extending beyond lower mandible, which is 

 flat and shallow. Nostrils covered by an oblong operculum. 

 Behind eye a patch of bare skin. 



Soft parts. — Bill greenish horn-colour ; legs and feet (ad.) grey 

 tinged yellowish -flesh, (juv.) yellow ; iris brown ; bare skin behind 

 eye red. 



Characters and allied forms. — P. p. armoricana (Brittany) is small 

 and has upper-parts more buff -brown than in P. p. perdix ; P.p. 

 hispaniensis (Pyrenees, N.W. Spain) has wavy bars on breast and 

 neck blacker and coarser with often pale shaft-lines on back of neck 

 of male and drop -like spots in female in winter, and in both sexes 

 broad bars on upper-parts and wing-coverts are less chestnut and 



