Partridge
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(1 Sam 26:20; Jer 17:11; Sirach 11:30) - a familiar game bird with gray or partly reddish plumage, short wings, and a small head. It runs swiftly and flies well, though it seldom rises high, and inhabits the Old World except its far north. Scripture names it only in the three cited passages. David, pursued by Saul through the hills and rocks of the wilderness of Ziph, bitterly says that it is unworthy for the king to hunt him 'as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains' (1 Sam 26:20).