COMMON PARTRIDGE 
PERDIX PERDIX 
(Plates XVI-XVIII) 
Tetrao perdix, Linn., Syst. Nat., 1, p. 276 (1766). 
Perdix cinerea, Latham, et auctorum plurimorum Gould, Birds Europe, iv, pi. 262 (1837); 
Dresser, Birds Europe, vii, p. 131, pis. 474 and 475 (1878) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell Brit. Birds, 
iii, p. 105 (1882) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. Birds, ii, p. 452 (1884); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, 
pt. ix (1891); Macpherson, in Fur, Feather and Fin Series,'' Partridge (1893) ; Saunders, 
III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 501 (1899). 
Walsingham & Payne-Gallwey, in Badminton Library,” Field and Covert, Partridge, 
p. 139 (1886); Harting, Handbook Brit. Birds, p. 146 (1901). 
Perdix robusta, Homeyer & Tancr6, Mitth, Orn. ver. Wien., vii, p. 92 (1883) ; ix, pi. 
figs. 3-5 (1885). {Altai Mts.{ 
Perdix perdix, Ogilvie-Grant, “Field,” Nov. 21, 1891, and April 9, 1892 ; id., Ann. Mag. 
N. H. (6), xii, p. 62 (1893) ; id.. Cat. B. Brit. Mus., xxii, p. 185 (1893) ; id.. Handbook 
Game Birds, i, p. 143, pi. xii (1895) ; Millais, Nat. Hist. Brit. Game Birds, p. Ill, 5 pis. (1909) ; 
Ogilvie-Grant, Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. xxix, p. 41 (1911) ; id., Witherby’s Brit. Birds, v, p. 234, 
pis. (1912). 
"^1^ DULT male. (September to June).— -General colour above, 
brownish -buff (washed with grey in birds from North - 
/ ern Europe), with narrow, close-set, wavy cross-bars 
f and lines of black. Lesser and median wing-coverts and 
i scapulars blotched on the inner web with chestnut, and 
p^with a longitudinal buff shaft -stripe only (fig. 2). 
Top of the head brown, with a few narrow buff shaft -stripes; rest of the 
head, throat and fore-neck bright rust-red; breast and sides pale grey, 
finely mottled with black, and barred on the sides and flanks with chestnut; 
a large horse-shoe-shaped chestnut patch on the lower part of the breast;* 
rest of the underparts whitish. First flight -feather with the extremity 
rounded (fig. 4). The scaling on the feet pale horn -grey. (Plate XVI.) 
Total length 12*6 inches; wing 6*2 inches; tail 3*5 inches; tarsus 
1’7 inch. 
In May the plumage of the cock bird becomes much faded and worn, the 
feathers on the upperparts of the body becoming quite grey from wear 
and exposure ; all the rich brown tints of the mantle, back, etc., disappear, 
and the wings are much paler, the conspicuous shaft -streaks becoming 
nearly white. At this season male examples from the British Isles are 
greyer than the greyest examples from North Russia killed in autumn 
and winter, an interesting point which I have recently recorded. 
* The chestnut horse-shoe mark on the breast is never entirely absent in the cock, but is sometimes reduced to a 
few chestnut spots. The variety with a white horse-shoe, that is to say with an entire absence of chestnut on the 
breast-feathers, is often met with among hen birds. 
T 
137 
