The flesh of the Red-legged Partridge is white, but rather
more dry, and in this country it is not so much in request
as that of our own bird, although on the Continent'it is:
generally preferred. The Red-legged Jbird has been known
to breed in confinement, and hybrids between it and " thé
Grey Partridge are on record. Mr. Stevenson -mentions
one killed at Holverstone in 1850, and ^Temminck. -antes
another;
The adult male has the beak red ; from the nostrils a
black streak passes to the eye, and, recommencing behind
the eye passes downwards and then forwards, joining- in
front, forming a gorget of black, from which,jboth ôh thé:
sides of the neck and in the front, numerous' bla-ck. streaks
and spots descend towards the breast..;::the iride»ir©'ddish-
orange, eyelids vermilion red ; top of .the head with a line
of white before and behind the-eÿe ; back ofVtheVneckj the
shoulders, back, wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts,
hair-brown, wing-feathers umberrbrown, with à margin ®|
buff on the outer web ; tail-feathers,, chestnut ;- breast, pearl-
grey^;. belly, vent, and under-tail coverts, -fàwn-éolôur ;, feathers
of the sides, flanks, and thighs, transversely barred
with pearl-grey, white, black, and fawn -..colour»;'legs and toes?
red, the former with a blunt rounded knob* inrthe situation
of a spur ; the claws brown. :
The whole length., is thirteen inches and a half; Jpgronct!
the carpal joint -to the end of the'wing, six and a ‘quarter-
inches.
, The female, is; rather smaller than tha- male •: rérer plumage,
is not quite so. bright in colour, and she has na rounded,
spur-like knob on the legs.
"White or; pied varietieshof this species are 'süaetimes:
mét with-. M. A>: Lacroix,, in his ^rOiseaux des Pyrénées;
hasifgiven; an illustration of. an. example with,
a white breast-band, obtained in, the Haute Garonne, in
November, 1872; and similar 'varieties were*, captured, at
the same season-in the years; 187:8 and 1874.
The Red-legged Partridge has. afforded, a remarkable illus-'
tration of the mannen in. which birds may aid in the dispersion
of seeds. On. December 3rd, 1860, an example, which
had one foot and leg imbedded in, a hard lump of earth,
outside which two. toes only were visible, came. under the
notice, of Mr. H, Stevenson, and was exhibited, described,
and figured .'by Prof. Newton (P. Z. S., 1863, p. 127)., The
latter forwarded the encrusted limb to the late Mr. Darwin,
who had, in his ‘ Origin of Species,’ alluded to the possibility
of seeds being contained and transported in similar lumps ;
and the following are the remarks of that distinguished
naturalist : “ I have examined the Partridge’s leg ; the toes
and tarsus were frightfully diseased, enlarged, and indurated.
There were no concentric layers in the ball of earth, but I
cannot doubt that itrhad become slowly. aggregated, jprobably
the result of some viscid exudations from the Wounded foot.
It is remarkable, considering that the ball- is threé years old,
that eighty-two plants have come up from it, twelve being
Monocotyledons, and seventy Dicotyledons, consisting of at
least five different'plants, perhaps many more.” '(H. Stevenson,
Birds of Norfolk, i. p. 418-.)' ?
The Barbary Partridge '{CacOddis 'petrbsa) was. included
in former Editions owing to an example having been
picked up dead at Èdmondthorpe, near Melton Mowbray,
in April 1842; It passed into ' the ' hands of Mr. Thomas
Goatley, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and from, it thq
present figure was drawn. Subsequently another was shot
on the estate of the Marquis- ’6Ï Hertford at Sudbourn in
Suffolk ; and two more Suffolk examples are recorded by
Mr. Harting (Handb. Brit. Birds, p. 129) ôn the authority
ÉÉ Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., who considers that these- specimens
must have been turned-down, or their eggs introduced,
by game-preservers. AnotherJis mentioned' by Mr. Cordeaux
(B. of the Humber, p. 81)- as killed near fEfeverley about
three years prior tef; 1872 ; fâhd Dr. Bullmore (Cornish
Fauna, p. 25) cités an example -obtaihéd at Killiganooa-,
Cornwall, in 1865.'o;p$ke- restricted natural range and non;-
migratory habit’s of this species hâve already been indicated^
and there can be no reasonable doubt that the ©ccurrenoevof
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