PARTRIDGE
(Heb. “Kõrê”, “the shouter”).
Wild bird that hunters chased through the mountains of Israel (1 Sam. 26:20). The caged partridge served as a lure (Sir. 11:30).
Jeremiah speaks of the partridge hatching eggs not laid by it (Jer. 17:11). According to exegetes, this passage is obscure and difficult to translate.
The desert partridge (“Ammoperdrix heyii”) is found in Israel. It is the only species widespread in En-gedi, in the desert where David was when he compared himself to a chased partridge.
There is another species, the “Caccabis chukar”, in the mountainous areas of Judea and Samaria. This is a smaller variety of the Greek partridge, “Caccabis saxatilis”.