PERDIX CINEREA, Unn, 
Partridg'e. 
Tetrao per dix, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 7*1. 
Perdix cinerea, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 645. 
vulgaris, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indi^. Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 27. 
cineracea, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 525. 
Starna cinerea, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., p. 43. 
The genus Perdiw, as now restricted, comprises but three species — our own well-known bird {P. cmered), 
the one inhabiting the Thibet side of the Himalayas, named in honour of Mrs. Hodgson P. Hodgso?iicB, and 
a third, from Northern China (P. harbatus). Each of these very distinct species enjoys a wide but different 
geographical range OA^er the Old World ; neither of them, however, frequent the boreal regions of the north 
nor the torrid ones of the south ; consequently Africa, India, and Southern China are not tenanted by any 
member of this genus. The area oa er which our own Partridge extends may be expressed in a single Avord — 
Europe, out of Avhich it rarely occurs. In England it is very generally dispersed ; in Scotland it is abundant 
in tbe southern districts, but is rarely met with in the northern, and never, I believe, in the Hebrides ; in 
Ireland it is dispersed over the cultivated grounds and their vicinity, but has never been so numerous as 
Avith us. Besides specimens from very many parts of the British Islands, my collection contains examples 
from Sweden, Russia, and Greece, all of which exhibit a close resemblance to each other in the colouring 
and markings of their plumage. 
The British Partridges differ considerably in size and Aveight — a circumstance mainly attributable to the 
more or less nutritive character of the food upon Avhich they have been reared ; the grass-land birds are 
smaller than those from chalky districts, and those from rich alluvial and grain-l)earing soils the largest 
and heaviest. The late Earl of Craven, Avhen shooting on the chalk downs of AshdoAvn, in Berkshire, was 
so good as to weigh a thousand expressly for my information, and found the heaviest to Aveigh fifteen 
ounces, while the average Avelght of the whole was thirteen and a half. The examples which have from 
time to time been kindly sent to me by L. H. Cumberbatch, Esq., from the centre of the NeAv Forest in 
Hampshire, Avhere they could never have seen corn-stubble, Avere round, compact, little birds, rather dark 
in colour ; of these the Aveight of the heaviest, fully adult males, varied from twelve and a half to thirteen 
ounces. A Partridge exceeding a pound in weight is rarely met with ; in the Avhole course of my shooting 
I never killed but one ; this was at Preston Hall, in Kent ; but Mr. W. A. Tyssen Amhurst sent me a 
Partridge which had been killed at Hunmanby, in Yorkshire, that weighed half an ounce over a pound; 
and Mr. Elwes favoured me with six heavy birds from Norfolk, one of which weighed the same. 
To enter into any details respecting the nesting of a bird so common and so well known would seem 
superfluous ; but I may mention that some individuals lay earlier than others, and that I possess notes, 
among my MSS., of coveys having been seen as early as the 7th of May, while from the 1 8th to the 
25th of June is the date at which the chicks usually burst the shell. 
The Duke of Wellington’s Norfolk keeper, Avho was with me on the I4th of May, 1862, stated 
that he had on the morning of that day a Partridge sitting, Avhich he expected AA'ould hatch her eggs 
before night. But, more remarkable still, Mr. Dilwyn, three days previously, showed me a note from his 
keeper in Wales, in which he informed him that he had seen one covey of Partridges ; these, therefore, 
must have been hatched a Aveek before, or about the 7th of May, The season certainly Avas a remarkable 
one, much AA^arm Aveather alternating with cold and wet. 
Generally the nest is either placed in the open field or on the sunny side of a bank or hedge-roAv ; 
but at this season the Partridge, like the Wood-Pigeon, throws off its usual shyness, and sometimes 
confidingly nests in a cottager’s garden or on a bank near it by the roadside, where hundreds of persons 
must pass and repass during the period of incubation. Instances have been knoAvn of the deposition 
of twelve or fourteen eggs in the flat head of a pollard tree, several feet from the ground, and in other 
equally unlikely situations ; perhaps one of the most remarkable is described in the folloAving note by 
the Rev. John Hill, Avhich has been kindly transmitted to me by his brother and my estimable friend 
Viscount Hill: — “In Weston churchyard, close to the lodge of Hawkstone Park” (his Lordship’s seat 
in Shropshire), “ a Partridge has made her nest, containing thirteen eggs, in some long grass against 
the side of a flat tombstone raised only tAvo or three inches from the ground. A new graA’e has been 
