The rock-partridge is strong on the wing, and fleet of foot. It is wild and shy, sagacious in availing itself of whatever facilities for concealment may be afforded by the district in which it happens to be. The flesh is used as food by the Arabs, though it is dry, and far in- ferior in flavor to that of our species. Its powers and craft make its pursuit an exciting sport, and hence it is hunted with avidity. Dr. Shaw (Travels, p. 236) de- scribes the mode of hunting the partridge thus: "The Arabs have another, though a more laborious method of catching these birds ; for, observing that they become languid and fatigued after they have been hastily put up twice or thrice, they immediately run in upon them, and knock them down with their zerwattys, or bludg- eons, as we should call them." On this Harmer (Observ. ii, 76) comments as follows : " It was precisely in this manner that Saul hunted David, coming hastily upon him, and putting liim up from time to time, in hopes that he shouUl at length, by frequent repetitions of it, be able to destroy him." Egmont and Hcymen (ii, 49) give an account of the manner of taking snipes in the Holy Land, very much like the Arab way of catching partridges. Tliey say that if the company be numer- ous, they may be lumted on horseback, as they are then never suffered to rest till tliey are so tired that you may almost take them in your hand. But snipes delight in watery places. David, therefore, being in dry deserts, might rather mention the partridge (Fairbairn).
It will be seen by the marginal reading that the pas- sage in Jeremiah may bear tlie following interpretation : As the korc "gatheretli yoinig which she liath not brought forth." Tfiis rendering is supported by the Sept. and Vulg., and is that which Maurer {Comment.
Partridges, from a bass-relief, Ehorsabad.
PARTRIDGE
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PARTRIDGE
in Jer. 1. c), Rosenmilller {Sch. in Jer. 1. c), Gosenius (Thesaur. s. v.), and scholars generally adopt. In order to meet the requirements of this latter interpretation, it has been asserted that the partridge is in the habit of stealing the eggs from the nests of its congeners and of sitting upon them, and that when the young are hatched they forsake their false parent; hence, it is said, the meaning of the simile : the man who has become rich by dishonest means loses his riches, as the fictitious partridge her stolen brood (see Jerome in Jerem. 1. c). It is perhaps almost needless to remark that this is a mere fable, in which, however, the ancient Orientals may have believed. There is a passage in tlie Arabian naturalist Damir, quoted by Bochart {Uieroz. ii, 638), which shows that in his time this opinion was held with regard to some kind of partridge. The explana- tion of the rendering of the text of the A. V. is obviously as follows. Partridges were often " hunted" in ancient times as they are at present, either by hawking, or by being driven from place to place till they become fa- tigued, when they are easily captured or killed in the manner above described. Thus nests were no doubt constantly disturbed, and many destroyed : as, therefore, is a partridge which is driven from her eggs, so is he that enricheth himself by unjust means — "he shall leave them in the midst of his days." The expression in Ecchis. xi, 30, "like as a partridge taken (and kept) in a cage," clearly refers, as Shaw {Travels, 1. c.) has observed, to "a decoy partridge," and the Greek ■KipSit, Srrjpsvn'ig should have been so translated, as is evident both from the context and the Greek words ; comp. Aristot. IJist. Anim. ix, 9, § 3 and 4. The "hunting this bird upon the mountains" (1 Sam. xxvi, 20) entirely agrees with the habits of the (ireeli partridge {Cuccabis saxaiilis) and the desert partridge (^Ammoperdix Heyi). The spe- cific name of the former is partly indicative of the local- ities it frequents, viz. rocky and hilly ground covered with brushwood. Our common partridge {Perdix cine- re«), as well as the Barbary (C. -petrosal and red-leg (jO. riifa), do not occur in Palestine (Smith).
Late commentators state that there are four species of the tetrao (grouse) of Linna3us abundant in Palestine ; the francolin {T. francolimis), the katta (7". alchata), the red-legged or Barbary partridge {T. petrosus), and the Greek partridge (T. suxutilig). In this now obso- lete classification there are included not less than three genera, according to the more correct systems of recent writers, and not one strictlj' a grouse occurs in the num- ber, though the real T. urogaUus, or cock of the woods, is reported as frequenting Asia Minor in winter, and in that case is probably no stranger in Libanus. There is, however, the genus Plerocks, of which the P. alchata is the kalta {rjanga, cata), and pin-tailed grouse of au- thors, a species very common in Palestine, and innu- merable in Arabia; but it is not the only one, for the sand-grouse of Latham (P. areiiariiis) occurs in France, Spain, Barbary, Arabia, Persia, and on the north side of the Mediterranean, or all round Palestine. P. A rah- iciis, and probably P. exusfus, or the Arabian and singed gangas, occur equally in the open districts of the south, peopling the desert along with the ostrich. All are dis- tinguished from other genera of Tetraonidm l)y their long antl powerful wings, enabling them to reach water, which they delight to drink in abundance; and by this propensity they often indicate to the thirsty caravan in what direction to find relief. They feed more on in- sects, larvffi, and worms than on seeds, and, none of the species having a perfect hind toe that reaches the ground, they run fast: these characteristics are of some importance in determining whether they were held to be really clean birds, and consequently could be the selav of the Israelites, which our versions have rendered "quail." See Quail. The francolin forms a second genus, of which F. vulgaris, or the common tree-par- tridge, is the Syrian species best known, though most likely not the only one of that country. It is larger than the ganga; the male is always provided with one