NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXIV. 1917. 283 



only one from Asia Slinor, and liardly any, certainly not enough to draw con- 

 clusions from, from the rest of Asia. With regard to the latter, we are just 

 as hopeless in the Tring Museum, but fortunately we have brought together 

 some Pyrenean and a series of Italian examples, and others of value for the 

 study of local races. 



The Partridge inhabiting the higher elevations of the Pyrenees and Northern 

 Spain has been fully dealt with in the Proceedings of the Fourth Ornithological 

 Congress (London and Tring, 1905) by Professor Dr. Louis Bureau. I need 

 not, therefore, here dwell on its differences and distribution, and \\\\\ only say 

 that it is a very distinct subspecies. 



Comparing a series of Italian Partridges I was not a little surprised to find 

 that they differed at a glance from the Central European Perdix perdix perdix 

 and so closely resembled the Pyrenean P. perdix hispaniensis ( = charrela) that 

 at first they seemed to be practically indistinguishable. A more careful com- 

 parison showed that they differed from the latter as follows : 



In both sexes the upperside is less dark and distinctly more brownish ; 

 jugulum and chest not so dark grey ; the horse-shoe mark in the male (and 

 when present in the female) not blackish brown but chestnut as in normal P. p 

 perdix. The c? differs from P. p. perdix chiefly by the less rusty or rufous upper- 

 side, especially dark brown instead of rufous cross-bars on the rump, and much 

 darker, less reddish brown spots on the upper wng-coverts. The females, 

 because of their coarser markings with the wider light shaft-lines and spots, 

 look rather different from females of P. p. perdix. Wings, ij 155-159 mm., 9 

 152-158-5 mm. 



I name this form : 



Perdix perdix italica subsp. nov. 



Type: (J ad., near Chianti, 20. i. 1905. In the Tring Museum fourteen 

 specimens, compared with nine of P. p. hispaniensis and a large series of P. p. 

 perdix. 



Another very striking Partridge is the one inhabiting the hills of Brittany 

 and Normandy, the so-called "armorican massive." It has been described by 

 Bureau in the very excellent and thorough article on the Pyrenean Partridge in 

 The Proceedings of the Fourth International Ornithol. Congress, pp. 497, 498. 

 Its upperside is so entirely rufous brown that the grey ground-colour has quite 

 disappeared and is only visible at the utmost bases when one lifts the feathers. 

 The chest is washed with rufous. The horse-shoe of the male is of a darker 

 chestnut than in normal P. p. perdix. Wing, <J 153, $ 152 mm., but according 

 to Bureau the wing of the male sometimes to 165 mm. 



Professor Bureau did not name this form because, on account of the absence 

 of a zone in which no Perdix is found (as in the case of hispaniensis, the area of 

 which is separated from the regions inhabited by P. p. perdix by the " Midi de 

 France," where only Caccabis occurs) separating it from its neighbour, P. p. 

 perdix, the absence of mountain-ranges or seas, etc., forming a sharp boundary, 

 and the consequent occurrence of intermediate specimens in the stretches along 

 the boundary of the two races. On the other hand, he admits that an ornith- 

 ologist's eye cannot confound them with the Common Partridge. Reading 

 his remarks I cannot hesitate, though I have examined only one adult male 



