PARTRIDGE:

Grey Partridge Perdix perdix, Perdrix grise.

2 occurrences

• ADO 2 1 139 p and then there's a partridge wing saved,

• 2H6 3 2 190 Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest,

Two species of partridges are now found in Britain. But the other one, the Red-legged Partridge Alectoris rufa, Perdrix rouge, has been introduced in the country. The first and unsuccessful attempt was made by Charles II at Windsor.

They were already a much appreciated food item as the description made by STRACHEY of a newly found bird in his True Reportery of the Wracke (Purchas His Pilgrimes, xix 5-72 quoted by KERMODE, in his edition of The Tempest), suggests:

A kinde of webbe-footed Fowle there is, of the bignesse of an English greene Plover, or Sea-Meawe, [...]; and they were a good and well relished Fowle, fat and full as a Partridge.

For Strachey, like Shakespeare, the partridge is the paradigm of the appetizing game bird: "fat and full" or "there's a partridge wing saved "(ADO 2 1 139).