Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists
C. D. Yonge, B.A., Ed.

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The next bird is the partridge. A great many authors mention this bird, as also does Aristophanes. And some of [p. 612] them in the oblique cases shorten the penultima of the noun; as Archilochus does where he writes—

πτώσσουσαν ὥς τε πέρδῖκα,

in the same way as ὄρτῦγα and χοίνῖκα have the penultima short. But it is usually made long by the Attic writers. Sophocles, in his Camici, says—

A man arrived, who in the famous hills
Of Attica is a namesake of the partridge (πέρδι:κος).

And Pherecrates, or whoever it was who wrote the Chiron, says—

He goes against his will, like any partridge (πέρδι:κος τρόπον).

And Phrynichus, in his Tragedians, says—

And Cleombrotus the son of Perdix (πέρδι:κος),

(for the bird is sometimes cited as a model of lasciviousness).

Nicophon, in his Handicraftsmen, says—

The hepseti, and all those partridges (περδι:κας).

But Epicharmus, in his Revellers, uses the word with the penultima short, where he says—

They brought in cuttle-fish, who swim the deep,
And partridges (πέρδικας) who fly in lofty air.

And Aristotle gives the following account of the bird— "The partridge is a land bird, with cloven feet; and he lives fifteen years: but the female lives even more. For among all birds the female lives longer than the male. It lays eggs, and hatches its young itself, as the common hen does. And when it is aware that it is being hunted, it comes away from its nest, and rolls near the legs of the huntsman, giving him a hope that he may catch it; and so it deceives him, until its young have flown away, and then it flies away itself also.