whereas in true Perdix they differ in plumage; and the
males have blunt spurs, which is not the case with our bird.
Their natural range is principally throughout the warmer
portions the Palsearctic, and tho northern districts of the
Ethiopian and Oriental regions.
Original^ introduced from abroad, the Red-legged'^Partridge
has maintained its: position for upwards of \a century,
not only without assistance, but even in spite of Isome
attempts to exterminate it, and its claim- to a place in
the British list is now generally admitted. It is stated
in Daniel’s ‘ Rural Sports/ that so long ago as the time
of Charles the Second, several pairs of Red-legged Partridges
were turned out. about "Windsor to obtain a stock;
but they are supposed to have perished, although some of
them, or their descendants* were'\een*for & few years afterwards;
and I find other .records of this bird having, been
killed in Berkshire, Mr. Daniel further states that the late
Duke of Northumberland preserved many in hopes of their
increasing upon his manors; and he also adds, that he himself,*
in 1777, within two-miles of Colchester, found a Covey
of fourteen, which baffled for half an hour the exertions of a
brace of good pointers to make them take wing, -and the first
which did so immediately perched, pm the. hedge, and was
shot there, without-its .being-knowh what bird it was. This
covey- was probably descended frorp those introduced into
England about thee- p jjjHj p i by the Marquis of#Hertford
and Lord Rendlesham, each of whom had eggs procured on
the .Continent, garefujly brought to England, and.'placed
under domestic fowls; the former at Sudbouru, near .Orford,
in Suffolk, one of his shooting residences p the- latter on his
estates at Rendlesham, a few. miles distant from Sudbourn.
Erom these-places the birds have been gradually« extending
themselves over the adjoining counties. ,
Professor Newton - states that in the neighbourhood of
Thetford, Suffolk-,- near which he formerly resided, the Red-
legged Partridge was not much knowmtijl after 1823, when
it was introduced. by Jmrds -dejRos. and Alvanley at Gulford,
near Bury $t. Edmunds, whehee the birds spread rapidly on
the adjoining estates, and became very plentiful. The eggs
were brought from France, as Professor Newton was told by
his father, who refused to have any at -the time of their
introduction. From this time onwards the Red-legs increased
with such rapidity that in 1825 Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear
(Trans. Lin. Sdc. xv. p. 34) wrote, ft These birds are now very
plentiful in some parts of. Suffolk. We have seen at least
one hundred and fifty brace upon Dunmingworth-heath, and
they are found in greater onless numbers from Aldborough
to Woodbridge.” Since then the species has spread into
Cambridgeshire,. Herts, Essex, Buckinghamshire, and even
Middlesex, and has been found occasionally in other counties
from Kent to Devonshire, and northwards to Westmoreland,
but the Midland and INorth-eastern districts do not appear to
suit it, and the; counties- of, Norfolk, and Suffolk, where it
frequents both the light and the heavy lands, still remain its
stronghold. In Scotland a solitary example was obtained
near Aberdeen in January, 1867:;* and an attempt to introduce
the. .species, into the.i Orkneys has failed. ^/Neither!
does it.appear to bave thriven in Ireland,;.where, according
to Thompson, it was introduced a few years prior to 1844.
This species was formerly known by the name of the
Guernsey- Partridge, .owing to thee belief;.-that it was
indigenous. tol that island; but Mr.. Cecil-Smith {ZooJ;
1881’^p. 397) considers that, even as an introduced species,
it is extinct both there and in the neighbouring islets:
Jersey, where Mr, Harvie-Brown saw, one a few years ago,
being thetóm-ly island on which .any.- still exist.; This
disposes of the supposition that an example shot many
years ago, near Weymouth, in Dorsetshire, had migrated
from the Channel Islands; and, in fact, all the evidence
at present available., tends to shew that thi^species is nowhere
in thé habit of taking long, migratory flights. Mr.
Stevenson, who has gone very carefully into the question, f
points out that although small, coveys of birds are regularly
met with in. spring on various;points .of the east coast,
* R. Gray, * ‘'Birds', af afrhe Wéstrof Scotland,^? 243.
‘ Birds of Norfolk?* ï, pg. é l3 f-k :6.^1