#partridges

A Partridge and Quail Feathursday

Partridges and Quails are both galliform birds in the superfamily Phasianoidea. Here are wood-engraved illustrations and a chromolithograph of four of them from Animate Creation by the English natural history popularizer J. G. Wood (1827-1889), published in New York in three volumes by Selmar Hess in 1885.

Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix) -- the chromolithograph.

Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa -- identified hers as Caccabis rubra)

Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix)

California Quail (Callipepla californica -- identified here as Lophortyx californica)

The wood engravings are after illustrations by the German wildlife artist Robert Kretschmer (1812-1872) and the chromolith is by the noted Boston lithographing firm L. Prang & Company.

Our copy of Animate Creation is a revised edition, adapted to American zoology by the American physician and zoologist Joseph B. Holder, of an earlier British publication by Wood first published in London by George Routledge as The Illustrated Natural History in 1853.

View more posts from this publication.

View more Feathursday posts.

They Say Partridges Sing Only For Forgotten Kings

Chapter Four: Only Owls Keep a Ledger of the Night

Lessons in Tyre: how to rule, how to negotiate, how to shave your head after a failed infiltration.

Lessons in Acre: how to grind mustard, how to manage cats, how to hold a grudge.

Baldwin and Cecilia are learning fast, just not the same things.

There was something about Tyre that made even a prince feel small. The journey had been a wet one now that winter had deepened its hold on the Levant. Their retinue left a week after Baldwin’s father had set out for Nablus, with William keeping his constant watch on his ward. Najm had been eager to stretch his legs on this trip; an eagerness that Baldwin well shared, even as the rain came and went in grey curtains across the hills. From Acre, they’d skirted the River Belus, and the Samariyeh hills had rolled beneath their horses without care or concern. They spent an hour crossing through a rivulet near Achzib (now higher than it ought to have been), where Baldwin watched a family of ducks try to peck at them as they passed. These birds usually migrated south to the Levant come Autumn, drawn to those temperate coastal waters where winter rains turn marshes into lush feed, and this year’s rains had been particularly generous. Baldwin considered going in for a closer look only to find that one duckling in particular seemed intent on making itself a problem. He couldn’t stay long to observe though, Abul’Khair had urged them all onward despite Baldwin’s great fascination. It was imperative to reach the city before the sun would set, with the rain already arriving ahead of schedule and running cold beneath their cloaks.

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Partridges in Schönbrunn Park

Artist: Johann Georg de Hamilton (Flemish, c. 1672-1737)

Date: 1732

Medium: Oil on canvas

"M&F Double Spurr'd Partridge (Perdix bicalcaratus)"

Indian Zoology; Second Edition. Translated from the Latin of Johann Reinhold Forster by John Aikin, M. D. Illustrated by Peter Mazell. 1790.

A partridge in a pear tree is a welcome gift- especially if you like eggs. The grey partridge lays the most eggs in a clutch of any species-- up to 20 at a time!

(Image: A grey partridge (Perdix perdix) by Tatiana Bulyonkova)