of the Common Francolin. 355 



mentions the abundance of Francolins in Spain in his time, and 

 tells us that they particularly affected plains overgrown with 

 *'ramerino e spigo/^ I have been assured that Francolins 

 were common many years ago near Tangiers ; but I may as well 

 mention that I have heard the name of "Francolino'^ applied in 

 different parts of Europe to the following birds — Otis tetrax,Pte- 

 rocles arenarius, Pterocles setarius, Perdix gambra, Lagopus alpinus, 

 and (Edicnemus crepitans ; and I am by no means certain that the 

 name is not occasionally applied to Tetrao bonasia. To revert to 

 Barbary : I observe that a writer in 'The Field/ of May 3rd, 1862, 

 includes " the Francolin, Arabice Boozerat," in a list of the game 

 of the district of Mogador and Saffi. Qu., is this our species ? 

 It is not included by Captain Loche in his catalogue of the birds 

 of Algeria ; and though it is mentioned by our old friend Olina 

 as especially abundant in the neighbourhood of Tunis, I have 

 every reason to believe it to be quite extinct in that regency. I 

 may here mention that I met a gentleman in the Zoological Gar- 

 dens at Marseilles (where there were several living Francolins 

 from Syria), who assured me that he had once, and only once, 

 met with and shot a pair of Francolins near Philippeville in 

 Algeria. My own belief is, that the ^Arra'ya'i of Aristotle, Pliny, 

 Celian, Varno, Ai'istophanes, and others, as quoted by Buffon*, 

 was the Francolin, though the latter author is quite confused be- 

 tween his Attagas, or Attagen, and our Tetrao scoticus, which 

 surely never existed in Egypt, Samos, Cyprus, and Barbary. 



Having done my best to show where the Francolin is not to 

 be met with, I may now state the very little I know as to where 

 it is found. A friend, who killed many Francolins in the 

 south of the island of Cyprus, told me that they were very 

 abundant in the Vale of Maratassa, near BafFa (the ancient Pa- 

 phos); that they are found in sandy spots with good cover, near 

 streams and ponds; that they lie pretty close, and will keep run- 

 ning before a dog, at last springing perpendicularly into the air, 

 with a great outcry, and darting off with a flight much like that 

 of our common Partridge : he considers them easy to shoot, and 

 most delicious food. The discrepancy between this latter state- 

 ment and that of Captain Irby may, I think, be reconciled by 

 bearing in mind that, as a rule, the hotter the climate the worse 



* Oiseaux, vol. iii. p. 264. 



