EED-LEGGED PARTEIDGE 353 



dusk mistook it for a Wood-Pigeon. My friend, who has 

 been a sportsman since 1818, and who is a careful 

 observer, never remembers a similar instance of Pheasants 

 feeding on ivy." 



By the care and attention of the keepers the woods 

 and plantations throughout Kent are generally well 

 stocked with Pheasants, but the majority of them have 

 a tinge of the ring-necked birds, which it is desirable, if 

 possible, to stamp out. 



Mr. D. G. Elliot, in his great work on Pheasants, 1874, 

 writes : " Every preserve in England and on the Con- 

 tinent inhabited at all by Pheasants contains this bird, 

 but it is difficult to meet with one which has not at some 

 time or another received an infusion of foreign blood, 

 and consequently presents evidence in its plumage of its 

 ancestors having lived in the vicinity of P. torqiiatus and 

 P. versicolor, which species have also been largely intro- 

 duced into Europe. It is a matter of regret that this 

 hybridisation should be permitted, for it in no way im- 

 proves any of the species, and gives to us a race of 

 mongrels which, at least to an ornithologist's eye, is 

 anything but agreeable." 



There is no doubt that the Eing-necked Pheasant has 

 been the cause of the deterioration in the size, weight 

 and beauty of the old English Black-necked Pheasant. 



Genus CACCABIS, Kaup. 

 EED-LEGGED PAETEIDGE. 



Caccahis rufa (LinnaBus). S.N., i., p. 276 (1766). 



French Partridge. 

 This introduced species has now become established 

 and breeds freely throughout the county, and is evidently 

 23 



