Adults normally come to water at sunup and, less frequently, 
before dusk. Relatively little time is spent around the water before 
fanning out for food on the drier slopes and fields. Youngsters seldom 
stray far from water for the first month and commonly drink two or 
three times a day. Dry years and small brood numbers are closely 
related. 
In captivity birds will survive for a week without water or 
green food. Birds in shipment for 2 days without water evidenced only 
mild interest in drinking when released. Two quarts of water will ful- 
fill the daily needs of 150 penned birds in winter - more might be 
required during the heat of the summer. When green food such as 
alfalfa or lettuce is available, water consumption is reduced to less 
than a quart a day. 
General Habits 
Movements and feeding habits 
Most bird species exhibit a fairly consistent daily movement 
pattern. The Spanish redlegs usually gather at night on a knoll in the 
valley, on a gentle slope, or in an open draw between hills, rather 
than on steep slopes or rough lands. The immediate situation may vary 
from an open field to grazed scrublands. pa 
By or before dawn, often when it is too dark to see clearly, 
the birds normally walk, singly or in small groups, to water. Their 
thirst quenched, they then spread out in a loose flock in search of 
food usually working over open fields, weedy areas, or pasture lands. 
It is not uncommon to come upon groups of 15 to 30 redlegs, early in 
the morning, leisurely looking for food in cultivated fields, in 
stubble, or even in recently-plowed furrows. Nor are weedy patches 
missed if they are not too dense. 
By midmorning there is a tendency to work uphill into brushy 
lands or open forests where clumps of scrub oaks, several species of 
which are evergreen, scotch broom, ilex, heath, and other shrubs and 
trees provide respite and shelter from the midday heat. Vineyards are 
favorite resting places. By four in the afternoon they are usually on 
their way down to their cover for the night, feeding en route. 
Mobility 
Like most partridges, the redlegs are nonmigratory and 
normally do not move long distances from their home coverts. In general 
they are more sedentary than are the chukars. There is, however, a 
. distinct movement from mountain coverts to lower valley lands in late 
autumn with a gradual return to spring and summer range in March. 
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