RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE 
is creamy-buff or stone -colour, spotted or blotched with purplish-, reddish- 
or yellowish -brown. They measure about 1*55 inch by 1*2 inch. 
An interval of several days often elapses between the laying of each egg. 
The young are able to follow their parents soon after they are hatched, 
and even in their earliest stages of down, are easily distinguishable from 
the young of the grey partridge. 
General habits . — They are nervous, active birds, and generally on the 
move, except when resting and dusting themselves on some dry sunny 
spot, or when feeding undisturbed. On the slightest alarm they commence 
running with neck erect and fully extended, and with all the feathers 
tightly drawn in to the body. Seen thus, they look very much smaller; 
and when feeding and at their ease, with all their feathers comfortably 
puffed out, they seem nearly twice the size. 
When driven, red -legs immediately commence to run, soon becoming scat- 
tered in all directions, and, when they rise, often come singly or in pairs to 
the guns. It is this habit, combined with their straighter and steadier flight, 
which renders them more easy to kill than the grey birds. Their powers of 
endurance are decidedly inferior to those of their smaller ally, for after one 
or two long flights they become exhausted and are unable to rise again. 
They then try to escape by running before the beaters, and hide themselves 
in the bottom of some hedge or among any convenient cover, where they are 
often caught by the dogs at the end of the drive. Not infrequently they seek 
shelter in a convenient rabbit -burrow, and a keeper has been known to take 
as many as three birds from a hole down which they had scurried. 
In very wet weather the plumage of the red -leg becomes soaked much 
sooner than that of the grey partridge, and the bird’s feet get so clogged, 
especially on a clay soil, that they are often unable to rise, and soon tire 
when they attempt to escape by running. A clay soil is often fatal to the 
young birds, for the lumps adhering to their toes become so dry and 
hard that they cannot be got rid of, and the birds being almost unable 
to move, soon perish. 
The red-legged partridge is very partial to rough hill-sides, the edges of 
young plantations, and to heaths and commons as well as long grass or 
rushes. When flushed it not infrequently perches on the branch of a neigh- 
bouring tree, and the male, especially in spring, may often be seen on some 
tree or stack. His call is a frequently-repeated chuck-er-ra-kae^ and both 
sexes utter a clucking note when running. 
W. R. OGILVIE-GRANT. 
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