Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Partridge and Pear

Oil on Gessobord. 6"x6"


This is a red-legged (or French) partridge, which perches in trees more frequently than the grey partridge, so likely is the partridge in the pear tree referred to in the Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

It has been suggested, though, that the pear tree is, in fact, "perdrix", which is French for partridge, and pronounced "per-dree." According to Wikipedia, the original line in the song could have been "A partridge, une perdrix."

It's incredible how much useless information you can gather while surfing the 'net!

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