of the Common Francolin. 353 



membercd it as formerly tolerably common, and gave a description 

 of its habits, which exactly coincided with those of the Indian 

 bird. The only Englishman, that I know, who has shot the 

 Francolin in Sicily is W. S. Craig, Esq., now British Consul at 

 Cagliari, who formerly passed several years in Sicily, but he only 

 once met with the bird in a wild state there. That it was once 

 common in the island there is no doubt. Olina, writing in 1622*, 

 says, " In Sicilia vene son molti ;" and gives a good figure of 

 the female bird. Savi, who tells us that the Francolin was 

 formerly very common in the preserves of the Tuscan princes, 

 but is now quite extinct there, says, — " Adesso vivono ed anche 

 trovansi assai comunemente in Sicilia ^^f: this was published in 

 1829. Temminck and Degland both give Sicily as a locality 

 for the Francolin, the latter author writing in 1849. The above 

 is all that I have been able to learn concerning the Francolin in 

 Sicily, and I consider the fact of its extinction in that island to 

 be well established. The only authorities I can find for the 

 existence of this species in Malta (a most improbable locality) 

 are Temminck and Schlegel, and I have no hesitation in stating 

 that it does not exist there at the present moment. In Cyprus 

 it is still tolerably common, and on careful comparison of speci- 

 mens procured by Mr. Tristram, in the market at Larnaca, with 

 some in my own possession from the Punjab, I can discover no 

 important difference. Temminck is the only authority for the 

 existence of this species in Sardinia; and I can only say, after 

 three visits to that island for the purpose of shooting, that not 

 only have I never met with the bird alive or dead, but I have 

 never been able to hear of its actual or former existence there. 

 In support of this, I may state that Signor G. Cara says, in his 

 useful little work on Sardinian Oinithology, under the head of 

 " Genus Perdix," ^' La prima sezione 'Francolino' mancafranoi."f 

 This gentleman has often assured me that the Francolin had 

 never, as far as he knew, been found in the island of Sardinia. 

 There are several authorities for the former existence of the bird 

 in the Neapolitan provinces ; but I am assured that it was im- 



* Uccelliaria Romana, p. 33. 



t Ornitologia Toscana, vol. ii. p. 189. 



\ Oruit. Sard. p. 106. Torino, 1842. 



