120 PHASIANID^. 



The flesh of the Red-legged Partridge is white, but rather 

 more dry, aud in this country it is not so much in request 

 as that of our own bird, although on the Continent it is 

 generally preferred. The Red-legged bird has been known 

 to breed in confinement, and hybrids between it and the 

 Grey Partridge are on record. Mr. Stevenson mentions 

 one killed at Holverstone in 1850, and Temminck cites 

 another. 



The adult male has the beak red ; from the nostrils a 

 black streak passes to the eye, and, recommencing behind 

 the eye passes downwards and then forwards, joining in 

 front, forming a gorget of black, from which, both on the 

 sides of the neck and in the front, numerous black streaks 

 and spots descend towards the breast ; the irides reddish- 

 orange, eyelids vermilion red ; top of the head with a line 

 of white before and behind the eye ; back of the neck, the 

 shoulders, back, wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts, 

 hair-brown, wing-feathers umber-brown, with a margin of 

 buff on the outer web ; tail-feathers, chestnut ; breast, pearl- 

 grey ; belly, vent, and under-tail coverts, fawn-colour ; fea- 

 thers of the sides, flanks, and thighs, transversely barred 

 with pearl-grey, white, black, and fawn-colour ; legs and toes 

 red, the former with a blunt rounded knob in the situation 

 of a spur ; the claws brown. 



The W'hole length is thirteen inches and a half. From 

 the carpal joint to the end of the wing, six and a quarter 

 inches. 



The female is rather smaller than the male : her plumage 

 is not quite so bright in colour, and she has no rounded 

 spur-like knob on the legs. 



White or pied varieties of this species are sometimes 

 met with. M. A. Lacroix, in his ' Oiseaux des Pyrenees 

 Francaises,' has given an illustration of an example with 

 a white^ breast-band, obtained in the Haute Garonne in 

 November, 1872 ; and similar varieties were captured at 

 the same season in the years 1873 and 1874. 



The Red-legged Partridge has afi"orded a remarkable illus- 

 tration of the manner in which birds may aid in the disper- 



