THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
(generally caused by a pellet of shot injuring the ovary), are occasion- 
ally met with in partial male plumage. These birds are usually character- 
ized by having a very large horse-shoe-shaped patch of chestnut on 
the breast, as much developed as in the adult male; and by the wing- 
coverts, which are barred with buff on one web only, the other being 
uniform and blotched with chestnut, as in the male. 
Young in first-autumn plumage .-—'Qy October the young birds of both sexes 
resemble the adults, but may always be recognized by having the first 
primary flight -feather pointed (fig. 3) ; this quill being carried till the 
moult in the following autumn. The scaling of the feet is yellowish or 
brownish -horn colour till about the month of January, when it becomes 
bluish-grey, as in the old birds. In young females the chestnut patch on 
the breast is often well developed, and sometimes nearly as large as in 
the adult male. 
Young in first plumage. — ^The whole of the upperparts, as well as the 
chest and breast, are brownish -buff, and each feather of the mantle, 
chest and breast has a pale buff or whitish black-edged shaft-stripe. 
The wing -coverts and scapulars are black, with buff cross-bars and 
shaft-stripe, very similar to those of the adult female. (Plate XVII.) 
The adult plumage first appears on the sides of the chest and breast, 
and on the flanks, rump, and upper tail -coverts; at the same time the 
feathers of the tail, inner primary, and secondary quills, and the lesser 
and median wing-coverts are renewed. It is therefore easy, at a com- 
paratively early period, to distinguish, even in “ squeakers,” the young 
males and females by the markings on the wing -coverts. 
Young in down have the top of the head reddish-brown, mottled with 
black, the upper parts of the body similar, but mixed with buff, and with 
three more or less distinct longitudinal black streaks, one on the nape, 
and one on either side of the spine, the sides of the head and neck buff, 
spotted and streaked with black, and the underparts pale yellowish -white. 
(Plate XVII.) 
Variations in colour. — ^These may be divided into three types. (Plate XVIII) : 
A. The chestnut variety. Known as the Mountain -Partridge {Perdix 
montana^ Brisson). In the most typical examples of erythrism the entire 
head and neck are bright rufous -buff, and the rest of the plumage rich 
chestnut, some of the feathers of the upperparts, especially of the wing- 
coverts, being usually more or less vermiculated with pale grey or 
yellowish -white and black. The quills are washed with the same chestnut 
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