THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. 
101 
breeding season, will exbibit a much clearer plu- 
mage than that of the autumnal dress of the males.* 
Perdix, Latham. — Generic characters. — Bill 
short, rather strong, bending from the base ; 
nostrils lateral, uncovered by feathers, but pro- 
tected by an arched naked scale ; wings short, 
rounded, fourth and fifth quills longest ; tarsi 
and feet naked; anterior toes united at the 
base by a membrane. 
Types, P. cinerea, picla, &c. Europe, Asia. 
Note. — Frequent lower countries, and are partial 
to cultivation. Not arboreal, gregarious only 
to the amount of their broods. 
The Common Partridge, Perdix cinerea, Bay. 
— Perdix cinerea , Partridge of British authors. 
— The Partridge -is distributed extensively over 
Europe, and, according to Temminck, extends to 
Barbary and Egypt, where it is migratory. It is 
almost everywhere abundant in our own island, 
the more northern moorish districts excepted. It 
follows the steps of man as he reclaims the wastes, 
and delights in the cultivation, which brings to it, 
as to the labourers, a plentiful harvest of grain. 
It is, perhaps, most abundant in the lower richly 
cultivated plains of England ; hut even the south of 
* “ Average length of the male specimen is 13| inches ; of 
female, 12J. Sabine Supp. to Append, to Ross, p. cxcvii. 
