196 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

ridges are very numerous in the warm and temperate re-
gions of the globe, living in pairs, principally in open tracts
of country: their food consists of grain, bulbous roots, |
seeds, and insects: they make a whirring noise on the wing,
but walk much more than they fly. The female lays her
eggs on the ground, often in the slight hollow formed by
the foot of an ox or horse, and slightly strewed with decayed
leaves ; the eggs are numerous, amounting, frequently, to
more than twenty ; upwards of thirty have been found in
the nest of the English species.

The English Partridge (Perdiz cinerea) is about thirteen
inches long, of a brown-ash colour, mixed with black, each
feather being streaked with buff; the chin, cheeks, and
forehead are tawny; old birds have a bright scarlet spot of
bare skin near the ear; the breast is marked with a chestnut
crescent. This species is also found in the East.

The Red-legged Partridge (Perdix rufus) is larger than
P. cinerea; the bill is red; the head greyish-brown in front,
red-brown at the back; the chin and throat white, encircled
with black, with a band of white over each eye; the back
and wings are greyish-brown; the breast pale ash-colour ;
under parts of the body red; the sides marked with streaks
of white, black, and orange. A variety of P. saxatilia,