settings
Gulliver’s Travels vocabulary
7 birds and/or bird terms
help & settings
[x]
-
partridge
-
tags: [avian] [sport]
► definition
Definition:medium-sized non-migratory birds, with a wide native distribution throughout the Old World, including Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa. They are sometimes grouped in the Perdicinae subfamily of the Phasianidae (pheasants, quail, etc.). However, molecular research suggests that partridges are not a distinct taxon within the family Phasianidae, but that some species are closer to the pheasants, while others are closer to the junglefowl.[...]Species such as the grey partridge and the red-legged partridge are popular as game birds, and are often reared in captivity and released for the purpose of hunting. For the same reason, they have been introduced into large areas of North America.text from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike
photo: By Mark Medcalf - Red-legged-Partridge, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15739790sound file: by dobroide (only a small sample, file amplifed slightly)
► uses
Uses:
Partridges and woodpeckers were booming and knocking in the forest.
---
The landlord was all obsequious, and a relay of about seven negroes, old and young, male and female, little and big, were soon whizzing about, like a covey of partridges, bustling, hurrying, treading on each other's toes, and tumbling over each other,
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin
---
The people in the log-house had them in every way; they stood quiet in shelter and shot the others like partridges.
Robert Louis Stevenson. Treasure Island (1883)
---
These insects were as large as partridges: I took out their stings, found them an inch and a half long, and as sharp as needles.
Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels Into Several Remote Regions of the World (1726)
---
The poor man starves while they are grassing their royal mountain stags or shooting peasants and phartridges in their purblind pomp of pelf and power.
James Joyce. Ulysses
help with search