134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



investigation here. As all particulars connected with such varie- 

 ties are, I beheve, worth recording; and as naturalists are, I 

 think, rather apt to attach too little importance to what are 

 considered "mere varieties," without attempting to account for 

 the cause, I w^ould suggest to members of this Society that, always, 

 particularly careful notes be taken by them of all varieties of our 

 common species which may come under their notice, such as, 

 contents of stomach, weight, measurements, nature of locality where 

 found, especially if the bird or other animal has been known to 

 frequent it for any length of time. Mr Sim, with his usual care in 

 all matters of importance, has done this as regards these partridges, 

 and sends me full notes. These two birds weighed 13J and 15 

 ounces respectively. Extent of wings 19 J inches, and length 

 from bill to the point of tail 12| inches, in each specimen. 



I now come to mention the other birds, of which specimens are 

 before you. Two are males and one is a female. This variety — 

 having the white horse-shoe on the breast — does not appear to 

 maintain distinctions with regard to sex as the other variety 

 appears to do, as here we have a male and a female precisely the 

 same, and another male, while it attains the white horse-shoe, 

 differs from the others in having the neck and chin buff, the 

 others having these parts white. 



These three partridges were shot out of the same covey by Mr 

 A. Burn Murdoch at Gartencaber, in the south of Perthshire, in 

 October, 1875. They are all young, well-grown birds; but, as 

 Mr Burn Murdoch remarks, must have been late hatched, and 

 would have been too small to shoot in the beginning 

 of September. He writes concerning them as follows : — " I also 

 killed one old bird of ordinary plumage, which I believe belonged 

 to the same covey, hut as it was a driven bird, and as there 

 were others in the vicinity, it is not a certainty that it really 

 belonged to the original lot. There were, I think, eight birds 

 in all. I have had a good many thousand birds off that district 

 through my hands in the last twenty years, and never had one 

 with such peculiarity of plumage as to attract notice, except in 

 the case of one covey many years ago, the birds of which were 

 distinctly lighter in general colour than ordinary, but retained 

 the usual chestnut of the head and breast." 



It is not so easy in the case of albinism to suggest a 

 cause for the departure from the type, but possibly it might 



