Partridge
Partridge names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Partridge par'trij, a familiar bird of the grouse family
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
par'trij, a familiar bird of the grouse family. The term is applied also to the quail, but it belongs of right to the ruffed grouse. In the South, the ruffed grouse is called a pheasant; in New England , a partridge. The ruff consists of two tufts of broad, glossy black feathers, one on each side of the neck. The partridge is found in wooded districts from the Mississippi Valley to the mountains of Georgia and northeastward into Canada. In the spring the male mounts a log or stump and drums by striking its sides with its wings. The thumps are deliberate at first, but come faster and faster, ending in a prolonged vibration. This drumming is well described by Chapman: "This loud tattoo begins with the measured thump of the big drum, then gradually changes and dies away in the rumble of the kettledrum. It may be briefly represented thus: Thump--thump--thump--thump, thump; thump, thump-rup, rup rup rup r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r. The partridge lays from eight to fourteen eggs in a well built nest beneath a bush, or at the foot of a tree. The young follow their mother a few hours after hatching, and are so lively, that "to run like a partridge" has become a proverbial expression. Many a boy walking in the woods has come across a partridge with a broken wing which, however, seemed to mend rapidly, as he chased her, until finally, and to his utter astonishment, she sailed away with perfect ease, while he perhaps lived to learn later in life that he had been deceived by a ruse of the affectionate mother designed to lure him from the vicinity of her covey. During the summer the partridge feeds her young on insects and grubs. In the autumn the entire family dine on small fruit. In winter, buds and seeds, especially sumach berries and dwarf birch buds, are articles of diet. The toes of the partridge are furnished with horny flanges which, like snowshoes, enable the owner to walk on soft snow. The partridge roosts habitually in evergreen and alder thickets, but, like the prairie hen , is quite capable, in the North at least, of taking refuge over night in a soft snow drift. The sharp-rayed track of the partridge adds another figure to this fantastic embroidery upon the winter snow, . . . leading you over logs and through brush, alert and expectant, till, suddenly, she bursts up a few yards from you, and goes humming through the trees--the complete triumph of endurance and vigor. Hardy native bird, may your tracks never be fewer, or your visits to the birch-tree less frequent!--Burroughs. I listened, and from midst the depth of woods Heard the love-signal of the grouse, that wears A sable ruff around his mottled neck; Partridge they call him by our northern streams, And pheasant by the Delaware. He beat His barred sides with his speckled wings, and made A sound like distant thunder; slow the strokes At first, then fast and faster, till at length They passed into a murmur and were still. --Bryant, The Old Man's Counsel.
Partridge the genus Perdix
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the genus Perdix, and especially P. cinerea, the common or gray well-known game bird partridge, widely a distributed in Europe. General tone of plumage brown; neck and upper flanks part of the breast, sides, and sides, bluish gray, freckled with dark gray, lower breast with a rich chestnut horseshoe-shaped patch on a ground of white; sides and flanks barred with chestnut; thighs grayish white; legs and toes bluish white, claws brown. Length of adult male about 12 inches. It feeds on slugs, caterpillars, and grubs to a large extent, and so compensates the farmer for the injury it does. In the United States, any one of the several species belonging to the genus Colinus, including the bobwhite and other quail-like birds. Also a large bombard formerly used in sieges and defensive works.
Partridge WILLIAM ORDWAY, an American sculptor and writer on art
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM ORDWAY, an American sculptor and writer on art; born in France, in 1861. Among his most notable works are: "Christ and St. John" (Brooklyn Museum of Fine Arts); "Hamilton" (Columbia University); "Shakespeare" and "Edward Everett Hale" (Chicago), and the Kaufmann and other memorial publications-"Art for America" (1894); "The Technique of the Sculptor" (1895), etc.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The birds are all still with us, but some of the details have moved. Aiton's said in 1910 that the male ruffed grouse "drums by striking its sides with its wings"; high-speed photography later showed the sound comes from the wings beating rapidly against the air, striking nothing at all. Collier's gray partridge of 1921, then "Perdix cinerea" of Europe, is now Perdix perdix and has been established across the northern United States and the Canadian prairies since early 20th-century introductions, so the sharp line the entry drew between European partridge and American quail no longer holds. Meanwhile the bobwhite Collier's listed under Colinus has fallen steeply across its range since the 1960s, and William Ordway Partridge, alive when that entry was written, died in 1930.
Written for this edition, 2026.