PARTRIDGE. 355 



Diet— lb. Supp Lewiris Br. Birds, 4. t. 136.— Wale. Syrt. 2. t. 184.— Putt. 



Cat. Dorset, p. 7. —Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. p. t. 305.— Selby, pi. 61. p. 314.* 



LOCAL VAItlFTIIiS. 



Perdix montana, Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 646. sp. 11. — Tetrao montanus, Gmel. Syst. 



p. 788. sp. 33 Perdix Damascena, Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 646. sp. 10 Tetrao 



Damascena, Gmel. Syst. p. 758. — Damascus Partridge, Lath. Syn. 4. p. 764. 9. 

 —Mountain Partridge, lb. 4. p. 765. 10. 



This species is so well known as to require very little description. 

 Length about thirteen inches ; weight fifteen ounces. The bill is bluish 

 brown ; irides hazel. General colour of the plumage cinereous brown 

 and black mixed ; some of the back and coverts streaked with buff; 

 sides of the head bright rust-colour; behind the eye a naked, red, warty 

 skin ; on the breast a deep bay-coloured mark, in form of a horseshoe. 



The tail consists of sixteen feathers of a bright rust-colour, except 

 the four middle ones, which are like the back ; legs bluish grey. 



The female weighs about fourteen ounces ; the head is less bright, 

 and the coverts of the ears inclining to grey ; the horseshoe on the 

 breast is white for the first year, afterwards more or less like the male, 

 and by the third year is no longer a mark of distinction ; whereas by 

 the head the sexes may always be known ; the bare skin behind the 

 eye is less conspicuous, and very little red. 



It has been long an esteemed opinion amongst sportsmen as well as 

 naturalists, that the female Partridge had none of the bay feathers on 

 the breast like the male. This, however, is a mistake, as we have 

 proved by the unerring rule of dissection ; for happening to kill nine 

 old birds one day, with very little variation as to the bay markings on 

 the breast, we were led to open them all, by which we discovered five 

 of them were females ; and by re-examining the plumage found the 

 males could only be known by the superior brightness of colour about 

 the head, which alone seems to be the mark of distinction after the 

 first or second year. 



This bird is found in all parts of Great Britain where corn is culti- 

 vated, but never at any great distance from arable land : upon the barren 

 mountains of the north it is never seen. In Scotland the Partridge, 

 the grous, and the ptarmigan, each have their district : the first is only 

 found in the glens or valleys ; the second on the first hills ; the last on 

 the summits of the highest mountains ; and it is very rarely that they 

 intrude upon each other ; though we have killed the three species in 

 the same day. 



The Partridge is very prolific, laying from twelve to twenty eggs. It 

 makes no nest, but scrapes a small hollow in the ground, placing a few 

 contiguous fibres therein to deposit its eggs on ; these are of a light 



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