COMMON PARTRIDGE. 
285 
in the ‘ Field,’ is not to be depended on, for the great 
majojity of young females — by which we mean birds of the 
year — have a well-developed chestnut horse-shoe, and in some, 
for instance birds from Leicestershire, it is quite as large 
and perfectly developed as in the majority of adult male birds. 
Young females from Norfolk and Suffolk are, however, gene- 
rally exceptions to this rule, and, like the majority^ of old 
females, have merely a few chestnut spots on the middle of 
the lower breast, and in this part of England it is rare to 
meet with anything like a perfect horse-shoe in young birds of 
this sex, while examples may be found without a trace of 
chestnut, and are commonly known as birds with a white 
horse shoe. As remarked above, the birds of the year, whether 
male or female, are easily distinguished from old birds by 
having the first flight-feather pointed instead of rounded at 
the extremity. The colour of the feet and toes is also, of 
course, a good character for distinguishing young birds from 
old ones in the earlier part of the season, but at the com- 
mencement of hard weather the yellowish-brown feet, denoting 
youth, having generally changed to bluish-grey, are perfectly 
similar to those of the adult, while the pointed first flight- 
feather is retained till the following autumn moult. Ihe only 
reliable character for distinguishing the sexes at all ages, 
except in v'ery young birds in their first plumage, is in the 
markiners of the lesser and median wing-coverts and scapulars, 
the buff cross-bars in the female being an unmistakable mark, 
and quite sufficient to distinguish her from a male at a 
glance. It is now some years since we first drew attention 
to" these rather important differences, which had hitherto been 
entirely overlooked, and we may now safely say that, though 
many people, especially sportsmen, were at first disinclined to 
believe in this character being a sexual difference, and tested 
it severely, it has, so far, never been found to fail. To con- 
vince gamekeepers of these facts is in most cases_ a hopeless 
that the horse-shoe mark on the breast is a certain 
sign of the male is ‘ bred in the bone,’ having been handed 
down as gospel for generations. One Scotch keeper in par- 
ticular, at a place where we have enjoyed many a pleasant 
day’s Parlridge shooting, rises before our mind, and the 
remembrance of this excellent and extremely obstinate soul 
