COMMON PARTRIDGE 
tint. In this form the sexes cannot be distinguished by the plumage of 
the wing-coverts, for the characteristic markings are absent. 
All intermediate stages can be found between the most typical chestnut 
forms and normal examples. 
This marked variety, first described from the mountains of Lorraine, 
has been procured in almost every county in England, and also in Scotland. 
It was described as the “ Cheshire Partridge ” by Latham so long ago as 
1823. 
B. The grey variety. In this form the forehead, eyebrow stripes, chin 
and throat are whitish, washed with very pale rufous, and the general 
colour of the rest of the plumage is clear grey, vermiculated with black. 
The horse -shoe patch on the breast is pale greyish -brown, or pale faded 
chestnut -colour. 
C. Pale varieties and albinos. These vary greatly in colour. Some are 
tawny white, and have the forehead, eyebrow -stripes, chin and throat of 
the normal rust-red colour, and a deep chestnut horse -shoe -shaped patch 
on the breast ; the back, rump, upper tail-coverts and flanks barred with 
chestnut, and the wing-coverts and scapulars blotched with the same 
colour. Others are nearly pure white, with faintly indicated dusky vermi- 
culations all over the plumage, and white shaft -stripes on the wing- 
co verts and scapulars. In the grey and white varieties (B and C), the 
characteristic sexual markings of the wing-coverts can generally be 
distinguished quite clearly. 
Between these three principal types of variation many curiously marked 
intermediate varieties may be found, generally among birds of the year. 
This is probably due to the fact that birds exhibiting any marked 
peculiarity in the colour of their plumage are generally singled out and 
shot. Only once have I examined an example showing traces of melanism. 
This singular variety, an immature female, which was shot by Mr W. 
Fitzherbert Brockholes, in Lancashire, is now on exhibition in the Bird 
Gallery at the Natural History Museum. It has a considerable amount 
of black beneath and round the eyes, and the markings on the wing -coverts 
are abnormally coarse. 
Birds with the horse -shoe mark on the breast of a very dark blackish - 
chestnut colour are occasionally met with. Mr Digby has recorded in the 
“ Field ” of February 7, 1891, two dark varieties, one of which had the 
head, neck and breast tinged with sooty black. 
Distribution . — The range of the common partridge (often known as the grey 
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