PLATE CXXXL 



This is a bird of considerable beauty, and is found in fucb vafi 

 abundance in the ifland of Guernfey, as to have obtained the appel- 

 lation of Guernfey Partridge. Birds of the f^me fpecies have been 

 alfo (hot in a wild ftate on the coafts of Norfolk, Kent, and Suffolk, 

 which latier circwmftances tend, in our minds, more fully to eftablifli 

 its claim to a place in the Britifh Fauna, than its being an indigenous 

 inhabitant of Guernfey ifland. Some attempts have been made to 

 naturalize the fpecies in the fouthern counties of England, which 

 have not, however, been ultimately attended with the fuccefs antici- 

 pated. The flefli is in much efleem, and the birds, for this reafon, 

 are often brought over to England from Guernfey, or, in times of 

 peace, from France, to fupply the tables of the affluent. 



Throughout the whole of the fouth of Europe, and alfo in Afia and 

 Africa, thefe birds occur in the greateft plenty ; fo much, indeed, that 

 in fome of the Greek iflands, the natives dellroy as many of their 

 eggs as poflible, in order to diminilh their numbers ; a precaution 

 highly neceflary for the prefervation of their corn-harvefts, which 

 often fuftain vaft injury from their depredations, as thefe birds aflb- 

 ciate in immenfe flocks, and fubfifl: principally on grain during 

 that feafon. In many refpeQs, their manners accord with thofe 

 of the common partridge, though, in the latter particular, they 

 differ materially, the partridge being a folitary bird ; and it is ob- 

 fervable likewife, that the Red-legged Partridges occafionally perch 

 on trees, which is altogether unufual with the common kind. There 

 appears to be two or more varieties of this fpecies of partridge. 



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