Partridge Features

The partridge is a game bird in the pheasant family. It lives naturally in Europe's Southwest, Spain, Portugal and France. It has been naturalized in the south of England, where it was introduced as species of hunt. It is a terrestrial not migratory species, which forms flocks out of the season of reproduction. It reproduces in low dry lands, as those of agriculture and opened stony areas, putting its eggs in a nest in land.

It measures approximately 34 cm of length. It is a round bird, of dun dark soft colors, gray chest and glossy abdomen. White face with black nape. Spotted flanks and red legs. When one bothers them, they prefer running to flying, but if it is necessary they do it to a short distance. The partridge is an omnivorous bird. To the week of life its diet is composed by 66% of invertebrates and 33% of seeds and flowers. To two weeks its nourishment is inverted and consumes 66% of seeds and flowers and 33% of invertebrates. To three weeks, when they can be considered to be adults continue consuming a majority percentage of vegetables (97%) that is distributed among seeds, fruits, leaves, roots and flowers, the insects and the lichens contribute the rest.

It is so evident that the nourishment of the partridges is very determined by the food availability that, in turn it depends to a great extent on the climatology and on the departure conditions of the habitat there existing. Though its consumption is more frequent in epoch of hunt, the partridge can be acquired all the year round since it grows up industrially in captivity.

Nutritional Properties

Its nourishing contribution is very important, being able to underline three characteristics: its high content in proteins of high biological value, its excellent quantity of iron and its moderate contribution of fat. The proteins of the partridge scarcely have collagen and this explains that the meat should turn out to be easy to digest. To equal quantity, the meat of partridge contributes more proteins that the loin of pork or the salmon, and 10 times less fat.

The partridge is, simultaneously, a food very adapted for persons with cardiovascular problems since its content in saturated fat is practically invaluable. The partridge is a lean meat, providing that it is consumed without the skin. Practically the whole fat of the partridge is estimated in the skin and under this one, for what it is very simple to withdraw it, doing that the piece turns out to be less oily, less caloric (it is one of the meats with minor quantity of fat and, therefore, it is very advisable for persons who need to control the calories of their nourishment) and easier to digest.

The wild and migratory specimens, they have even less oily than that grow up in farms, due to the energy that they consume in their long displacements. As other many specimens of hunt, the partridge is an excellent source of iron even superior to the red meats of supply, as the bull or the lamb. For this motive it is considered to be a red meat, because their muscles concentrate great quantity of mioglobine, the pigment that contains iron and gives that typical color.

In addition it is of very easy absorption, making it adapted for persons with a few needs extra of this mineral (women during the pregnancy, the lactation or the menstruation) as well as for persons with trend to suffer anemia (sportsmen/sportswomen, diets of slimming, etc.). Besides the iron other minerals stand out as the calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and zinc. As for vitamins they are those of the group B, in I make concrete, the B2, B3 and B12, the most abundant in the meat of partridge.

Curiosities

Our protagonist probably is the happiest animal of the creation. Not uselessly, it is a protagonist of the famous Spanish saying " … and they were happy and they ate partridges ". There are different the theories that circulate on the origin of this popular expression. The one that, according to the majority of the historians, has more credibility is the one that is located in the court of Marguerite de Valois, whose astrologer was saying: " Husbands that you want to be loved by your wives, women that you want to be loved by your spouses, not to have any more than to take a partridge and the heart to extract it: to the woman, that of the male; to the man, that of the female, and this way you will be happy eternally ". In Catalina de Medicis's French court, the partridge was considered as " good and easily digestible meat, which the brain reinforces, facilitates the conception and wakes up the desire semislept of the venereal pleasures ", as it is reported in the book De honesta voluptate et valetudine of the author Bartolomé Platina.