OBSERVATIONS ON VOICE AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE RED‐LEGGED PARTRIDGE ALECTORIS RUFA.

Abstract

Summary. This paper deals with observations made on captive and wild Red‐legged Partridges. The more detailed work has been with captive or semi‐captive birds. Most of the wild birds watched were in Kent or Middlesex. The call‐notes and their functions are described. The species has many distinct notes, evidently correlated with different emotional moods. As with other birds, intermediate notes may be given as the caller's mood changes. The common display, in which the conspicuous markings of flanks, face and neck are presented, is primarily threatening. It is shown when the impulse to attack is inhibited by fear or sexual feeling. Feeding movements are also shown under conditions of inhibited aggressiveness. The male selects the nest‐site and makes the nest, attracting the female's attention to it with a special call. He makes a second nest when the first is full of eggs. The male of a captive pair started to incubate the eggs in the first nest on he day following that on which the female began to incubate those in the second neat. Much circumstantial evidence suggests that this behaviour occurs commonly in the wild state. The behaviour of male and female when tending chicks or incubating was identical.The male showed no ‘masculine” traits of voice or gait in this period. In the wild, broods are normally attended by only one parent. Parental care is described. Any object swooping towards the chicks releases an aggressive response in the parent. Birds of prey in flight are recognised innately. The parent reacts instantly to the distress cheeping of a lost chick, answering its cries and hastening towards it. On first leaving the nest the chick pecks at every object it notices that is small and contrasts with its background. A chick that finds a supply of food utters notes that attract its companions, but one that finds a single large food‐morsel flees with it away from the others. Young birds cluster together for warmth when the parent is no longer willing to brood them. Dust‐bathing and sun‐bathing are much practised. Initially the dusting appears to be evoked by tactile stimuli, but in experienced birds the initial stimulus may be visual. The “comfort” movements are similar to those of the domestic fbv.1. Deliberate anointing of the plumage with oil from the preen‐gland is frequent, especially at the moment rain begins to fall. Escaping behaviour and fear responses are described. The bird's play movements consist of emotion‐dissociated fleeing movements which suggest that I raptors are important predators under natural conditions.