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The books are listed in order of publication date with the most recent at the top.

Partridges

In the UK

Grey Partridge
Perdix perdix

Red-legged Partridge
Alectoris rufa

Other partridges

There are just over 40 other species of partridges worldwide.

Terrestrial Gamebirds & Snipes of Africa: Guineafowls, Francolins, Spurfowls, Quails, Sandgrouse & Snipes

Rob Little

2016

"Terrestrial Gamebirds & Snipes of Africa is a detailed full-colour hand book. It includes everything needed to identify and get to know the 74 species that fall into six groups: guineafowls and Congo Peafowl, francolins and partridges, spurfowls, quails, sandgrouse, and snipes and Eurasian Woodcock. Terrestrial Gamebirds & Snipes of Africa offers a concise summary of the large but scattered body of accumulated scientific research and field-guide literature. Pertinent and interesting facts about the distribution, habits, breeding and conservation of each species are presented in a readable fashion. More than 250 photographs convey the appearance, characteristic features, behavioural activities and, in many cases, the habitats frequented by each bird. Terrestrial Gamebirds & Snipes of Africa will be a worthy addition to the ornithological literature and to the bookshelves of bird enthusiasts, particularly birders, wing-shooters, land owners and anyone with an interest in nature and conservation, throughout Africa and across the rest of the world."

Partridges: Countryside Barometer

G.R. Potts

Collins

2012

"In this groundbreaking addition to the New Naturalist series, Potts explores how mankind and partridges have evolved together, both ultimately dependent on grasslands rather than forests. For thousands of years, both ate grass seeds and this continued until cereals largely replaced them. Hundreds of species of plant and insect that partridges and other birds eat thrived on farms for thousands of years until the dawn of the pesticides era. Since then the long decline in partridge abundance has been a barometer for biodiversity over vast swathes of the Northern Hemisphere. Highlighting the positive example of the Norfolk Estate in the Sussex Study area, Potts investigates how both grey and red-legged partridge numbers have been increased, flourishing in a highly productive and profitable system of farming and an oasis in what has often looked and sounded like a desert. In a small corner of England farmland wildlife is able to thrive much as it did before pesticides were introduced. This is a complex and fascinating story, with a heady mix of hunting, farming, predation, parasites, disease and climate change. The way these factors have interacted tells us a lot about how lesser known species have fared and how they can be conserved for the future."

Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse: Including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and their Allies

Steve Madge and Phil MacGowan

Helm Identification Guides

Helm

2002

"A comprehensive guide to over 250 species of pheasants, partridges, quails, grouse, turkeys, guineafowl, buttonquails and sandgrouse. This book is primarily an identification guide focusing on identification details and description. The text provides information on identification, description, geographical variation, voice, status, habitat and behavior, distribution, movements and conservation issues. 72 color plates show male, female, juvenile, and subspecies plumages. There is a colour distribution map for each species. A glossary and bibliography are provided."

Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse: Including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and their Allies

Steve Madge and Phil MacGowan

Princeton University Press

2002

"This guide brings together, for the first time within a single volume, a comprehensive review of all the world's pheasants, partridges, quails, grouse, turkeys, guineafowl, buttonquails, sandgrouse, and the enigmatic Plains-wanderer - over 250 species in all. The group includes some of the world's most familiar and beautiful birds, such as the Indian peafowl and the stunning tragopans, as well as some of the rarest and most threatened. This book concentrates on detailed identification and distribution, but also highlights conservation issues where relevant. The seventy-two color plates, by leading bird illustrators, show male, female, juvenile, and subspecies plumages, and form the finest set of illustrations of these birds to date. There is also a color distribution map for each species."

Of Partridges and Peacocks and Things About Which I Know Nothing: A Life in Wildlife Ecology and Wildlife Management

David Jenkins

2002

Autobiography of a distinguished Scottish ecologist.

"David Jenkins was born in 1926 and has been a birdwatcher and naturalist since boyhood. He began his career as a veterinary surgeon, but after studying for his doctorate on the social behaviour of partridges, became an ecologist. He worked initially for the Scottish Landowners' Federation and Aberdeen University, and subsequently with the Nature Conservancy (now English Nature) and the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE, now the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) at Banchory. David Jenkins also played a key role in introducing scientific thinking, both to the World Pheasant Association and the early Grouse Symposia. He served as the editor of several Grouse Symposium Proceedings and has been one of the driving forces behind the publication of Grouse News and the foundation of the IUCN/SSC/Birdlife International/WPA Grouse Specialist Group."

Partridges, Quails, Francolins, Snowcocks, Guineafowl and Turkeys: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, 2000-2004

Editors: Richard A. Fuller, John P. Carroll, Philip J.K. McGowan on behalf of WPA/BirdLife/SSC Partridge, Quail and Francolin Specialist Group

2002

A 64 page report. This superseded the 1995 publication Partridges, Quails, Francolins, Snowcocks and Guineafowl: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan 1994-1999.

Partridges, Quails, Francolins, Snowcocks, Guineafowl and Turkeys: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, 1995-1999

Editors: Philip J.K. McGowan, Simon D. Dowell, John P. Carroll and Nicholas J. Aebischer, and the WPA/BirdLife/SSC Partridge, Quail and Francolin Specialist Group

1995

A 101 page report with an overview of the species covered; summary of their conservation status; regional statistics; and project proposals by region.

A Partridge Year

Esmond Lynn-Allen and A.W.P. Robertson

1989

Describes the day-to-day life of partridge during the cycle of an English year, and features original research and photographs.

Quails, Partridges and Francolins Of The World

Paul A. Johnsgard

Oxford University Press

1988

This book describes 103 species of Old World quails, partridges and francolins and 31 species of New World quails. The descriptions cover biology, ecology, development, behaviour, taxonomy, and zoogeographic aspects. Includes 127 colour plates and 42 maps. The book is a companion volume to the author's Pheasants of the World.

The Partridge

G. R. Potts

1986

A study of partridge ecology that aims to promote methods of conservation which could arrest the decline of the Grey Partridge in the UK. Investigates methods of restricting pesticide and other strategies to aid breeding success. Includes colour plates, colour and black and white photographs and other diagrams, tables and graphs.

Quails and Partridges of North America: A Bibliography

Charles G. Crispens

1960

The Natural History Of British Game Birds

J.G. Milais

Longmans Green & Co

1909

From the introduction: "The Natural History of the British Surface-feeding Ducks was so successful that I have been encouraged to produce the present work on Game Birds on similar lines, but I trust with superior reproductions. Our birds of the chase are a subject of perennial interest both to sportsmen and naturalists, and I have endeavoured to bring all that is known about them up to date, as well as to add much fresh material regarding the habits, plumages, hybrids, and varieties of a group of which I have made a special study for many years. Again I have had the great assistance of my friend Mr. Archibald Thorburn, whose work amongst his particular family of birds needs no eulogy on my part. It is sufficient to say that his paintings of gallinaceous birds have never been, nor are likely to be, surpassed in our generation."

Upland Game Birds

Edwin Sandys and T.S. Van Dyke

The Macmillan Company

1902

Opening lines:

Despite the leagues of virgin paper and gallons of ink which have been wedded to produce the story and the glory of the shooting of the American "quail," the interesting fact remains - there's no such bird. If at the time of this writing there be true quail alive and free in the United States of America, either the birds or their immediate ancestors have been imported. The quail of the Bible story, the heaven-sent meat to the famished, was a true quail, but the bird is not a native of this country. And, in passing, it may not be out of place to remark that latter-day scientific knowledge only sustains, as it does in so many other instances, the absolute truth of the ancient record. Under conditions likely to prevail at a certain season of any year, great flocks of migrating quail not only might, but probably would, act as did their ancestors in days of old.

The Gallinaceous Game Birds of North America

Daniel Giraud Elliot

Francis P. Harper

1897

From the preface:

"The construction of the present volume is precisely similar to that of the "Shore Birds," and first is given the common name of each bird, or, if there are more than one, that most generally employed. Then follows an account of the habits and economy of the species, and a short life history; after which comes the Latin name succeeded by the geographical distribution, and a description of both sexes when necessary, and of the young whenever possible. In the Appendix will be found the Keys to the Families, Subfamilies, Genera, and Species, arranged in the same simple manner as those published in the "Shore Birds," and which will enable anyone with a little patience to ascertain to what species an unfamiliar example may belong. Excepting perhaps the Ptarmigan, the various species of gallinaceous birds are more easily recognized from each other, in illustrations printed only in black and white, than are those of the "Shore Birds," and the various Keys will be found perhaps less necessary, and only really required in the cases of the group above mentioned, or in closely allied species of Prairie Grouse. The author's experience among the game birds has been very extensive, gained from a familiar acquaintance with them in their haunts extending over many years. With a few exceptions, he has observed all the species contained in this book in the various localities they frequent throughout North America, and in the proper season representatives of most of them have fallen to his gun. Unlike the majority of the "Shore Birds," omitting a few species and those mainly among the Ptarmigan, Partridges and Grouse breed within the limits of the United States, and their habits in the nesting season can be observed by anyone who may be suffciently interested to visit those parts of our country in which the birds are to be found."

Catalogue Of The Game Birds (Pterocletes, Gallinae, Opisthocomi, Hemipodii) In The Collection Of The British Museum

W.R. Ogilvie-Grant

Printed By Order Of The Trustees

Sold by: Longman & Co.; B. Quaritch; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.; and at the British Museum (Natural History)

1893

Preface:

"The present volume treats of four Orders of Birds, constituting the greater bulk of what are commonly termed Game Birds. The numbers of species described and of specimens at present in the Collection are as follows: Pterocletes, 17; Gallinie, 384; Opisthocomi, 1; Hemipodii, 24. In the first category those forms are included to which, in the author's opinion, no higher than subspecific rank should be assigned; only 23 of these species and subspecies are still unrepresented in the Collection. Beside the 102 types of recognized species the Collection contains 50 other typical specimens which are now considered identical with previously named species."