THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE
Caccabis rufa (Linnæus)
This species has been introduced into this country at various times from 1770 onwards, and is now well established in several districts. Its home on the Continent is the east and south of France, Spain, and North-western Italy, where it inhabits dry and mountainous districts. In this country it can only be called common in the East Anglian counties, though it is also found on both sides of the Thames valley and in some parts of the Midlands. The damp climate of the west does not suit it, and attempts to introduce it into Scotland and Ireland have failed.
In food and habits it is somewhat similar to the Common Partridge, but its habit of running instead of getting on the wing renders it less desirable as a sporting bird, and its flesh is decidedly inferior. It lays its eggs in banks or under hedges, well concealed by thick cover, without any attempt at a nest beyond a slight scrape. The eggs are yellowish white, speckled with brown, and are slightly larger than those of the Common Partridge. The note is a harsh “clink, clink, clinkar,” and the male assists the female in rearing the young.
They are not quite so gregarious as the preceding species, and old males, except during the breeding season, frequently lead a solitary existence.
The sexes are alike in plumage, but the male has a blunt spur. The throat and cheeks are white, bordered with black. Sides of neck and breast grey, spotted with black. Crown grey; stripe above the eye white. Rest of upper parts warm rufous brown. Under parts fawn colour; flanks grey, boldly barred with black and chestnut. Bill and legs deep coral red.
The young are brown on the throat and breast. Length 13·5 in.; wing 6·22 in.
THE QUAIL
Coturnix communis, Bonnaterre
This species is only a summer visitor to this country, though examples have been known to spend the winter with us. Never very abundant, it has of late years become decidedly scarcer, and can now only be considered an uncommon and local bird.
Delighting chiefly in dry, broken, uncultivated land, it becomes scarcer in the north, but has been known to nest as far north as Caithness. The nest is a “scrape” in the grass, and the seven to twelve eggs are yellowish white blotched with umber brown. The male has a melodious call-note, which may be syllabled as “clerk, lik, lik,” to which the female answers with a soft “peu, peu.” The food consists of grain, seeds, and insects, and at the times of migration this bird becomes exceedingly fat and very good eating. The Quails that are found in our markets are usually snared in Italy during the spring migration, and used to be sent alive to this country, but they are now killed and sent dead. It was a migration of this species that supplied the Children of Israel with food in the desert, and large flocks still pass through Palestine yearly on migration.
The Quail is not unlike a small Partridge, and is of a uniform sandy brown on the upper parts, with paler shafts to the feathers. The chin and throat are white, with two brown crescentic bars, and sometimes a brown streak down the centre. The breast is buffish and the under parts white. This species shows a certain amount of variation in minor details of plumage. Length 7 in.; wing 4·4 in.