VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE.
Perdue Virgimana, LATE AM. J EN YN.S.
Pfrdix—A Partridge. Virginianq—Of Virginia,
T H E species before us has been introduced into this country from
America, where it is indigenous in both continents. Montagu mentions
that several had been turned out in different parts of the British
Empire, and he speaks of one shot near Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire.
In Norfolk, some were let loose by Mr. Coke, (Lord Leicester,)
near Kolkham, and some of their descendants are believed still to
exist; a nest with several eggs was found at Barton, in that county.
Several have been killed in the county of Surrey; others were introduced
at Teddesley, in Staffordshire, by Edward John Littleton, Esq.,
of that estate; one was shot at Rotherficld, near Tunbridge Wells,
Kent, a female, about the 1st. of January, 1850; another, a male,
about the same time and place; and one near Chelsham Court,
Godstone, Surrey, in the middle of October, 1845: it was supposed to
be one of a number procured from America, which had been turned
out near Windsor by His Royal Plighncss Prince Albert.
I n Ireland, General Gabbit liberated many on his estates, but it is
said that in two years the breed was lost.
I n their native country they are migratory. Henry Newdigate, Esq.,
of the Rifle Brigade, has written me word, that having brought two
brace of these birds from Canada in the spring of 1852, one of the
hens in the autumn of that year laid an egg—subsequently they all
died one by one.
The Virginian Partridge can be kept in confinement, and has been
known to breed in that state. They are taken in large numbers for
the table, being very much esteemed, and arc captured in various ways.
They frequent the neighbourhood of woods, but rarely the woods or
forests themselves, and conceal themselves among bushes, brushwood,
and herbage, from which they emerge to feed in the open fields;
they perch at times in low trees. In severe weather they come close