Book 9
41
The next bird is the partridge. A great many authors mention this bird, as also does Aristophanes. And some of 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).
