NOVITATES ZOOLOOICAE XXIV. 1917. 275 



NOTES ON GAME-BIRDS. 

 By ERNST HARTERT, Ph.D. 



I. THE GENERIC NAME OF THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGES. 



CURIOUSLY enough, the.se birds have hitherto almost universally been 

 called " Caccabis" But Kaup (Skizzierte Entwickelungs-Geschichte und 

 Natilrl. Syst. der Europ. Thierwelt, 1829) gave two names to the group : one, 

 Alectoris, on p. 180 (andp. 193), Monotype A. petrosa =barbara ; another, Caccabis, 

 on p. 183 (and p. 194), Monotype C. saxatilis. We must undoubtedly go by the 

 strictest priority, and accept the first name. Therefore, as Accipiter palumbarius 

 has given way to A. gentilis and Anas bosckas to .4. platyrhyncha, so Caccabis 

 must be replaced by Alectoris. This would probably have been done before, 

 if in the Gat. B. xxii. p. 110, Caccabis had not been quoted before Alectoris, 

 though both names are given with the correct pages. In Lists of synonyms 

 the first name should, of course, always be placed first, even if the author 

 rejects it. 



II. THE CORRECT NAME OF THE BARBARY PARTRIDGE. 



While Latham and Gmelin did not identify Edwards's Barbary Partridge 

 and Buffon's Perdrix de Roche ou de la Gambra as one and the same bird — this 

 blunder was apparently first committed by Temminck in Hist. Nat. Pigeons et 

 Gallin. iii. pp. 368, 369, and since then everybody has mixed them up — probably 

 no modern ornithologist has read Buffon's description, on which Gmelin's name 

 Tetrao petrosus was based, or consulted its source. 



Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. 2, p. 758, gave the name Tetrao petrosus solely to 

 Buffon's Perdrix de Roche ou de la Gambra (Buffon, Hist. Nat. Ols. ii. p. 446). 

 Now, this is what Butfon wrote : 



" Cette Perdrix prend son nom des Ueux ou elle a ccutume de se tenir par 

 preference ; elle se plait comme les perdrix rouges, parmi les rochers et les 

 precipices : sa couleur generale est un brun obscur, et elle a sur la poitrine une 

 tache couleur de tabac d'Espagne. Au reste, ces perdrix se rapprochent encore 

 de la perdrix rouge par la couleur des pieds, du bee et du tour des yeux ; eUes 

 sont moins grosses que les notres, et r^troussent la queue en courant ; mais, 

 comme elles, elles courent tres-vite, et ont en gros la meme forme ; leur chair 

 est excellente " (Voyez Journal de Stibbs, p. 287 ; and I'Abbe Prevot, tome iii. 

 p. 309). , 



There is very little in this description that could lead one to believe that 

 the Barbary Partridge was meant by it; no mention of the red, white-spotted 

 band around the throat, none of the brightly coloured flank-feathers, none of 

 the red tail, and the size being less than that of our partridges, and that they 

 erect the tail when running, and last, but not least, the locality, are absolutely 

 against it. But let us see what Stibbs himself said. In Francis Moore's 

 Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa, etc., to which is added Capt. Stibbs" 



