RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE, 121 



sion of seeds. On December 3rd, 1860, an example which 

 had one foot and leg imbedded in a hard lump of earth, 

 outside which two toes only were visible, came under the 

 notice of Mr. H. Stevenson, and was exhibited, described, 

 and figured by Prof. Newton (P. Z. S., 1863, p. 127). The 

 latter forwarded the encrusted limb to the late Mr. Darwin, 

 who had, in his 'Origin of Species,' alluded to the possibility 

 of seeds being contained and transported in similar lumps ; 

 and the following are the remarks of that distinguished 

 naturalist: "I have examined the Partridge's leg; the toes 

 and tarsus were frightfully diseased, enlarged, and indurated. 

 There were no concentric layers in the ball of earth, but I 

 cannot doubt that it had become slowly aggregated, probably 

 the result of some viscid exudations from the wounded foot. 

 It is remarkable, considering that the ball is three years old, 

 that eighty-two plants have come up from it, twelve being 

 Monocotyledons, and seventy Dicotyledons, consisting of at 

 least five different plants, perhaps many more." (H. Steven- 

 son, Birds of Norfolk, i. p. 418.) 



The Barbary Partridge {Caccahis petrosa) was included 

 in former Editions owing to an example having been 

 picked up dead at Edmondthorpe near Melton Mowbray, 

 in April 1842. It passed into the hands of Mr. Thomas 

 Goatley, of Chij)j)ing Norton, Oxfordshire, and from it the 

 present figure was drawn. Subsequently another was shot 

 on the estate of the Marquis of Hertford at Sudbourn in 

 Suffolk ; and two more Suffolk examples are recorded by 

 Mr. Harting (Handb. Brit. Birds, p. 129) on the authority 

 of Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., who considers that these speci- 

 mens must have been turned down, or their eggs introduced, 

 by game-preservers. Another is mentioned by Mr. Cordeaux 

 (B. of the Humber, p. 81) as killed near Beverley about 

 three years prior to 1872 ; and Dr. Bullmore (Cornish 

 Fauna, p. 25) cites an example obtained at Killiganoon, 

 Cornwall, in 1865. The restricted natural range and non- 

 migratory habits of this species have already been indicated ; 

 and there can be no reasonable doubt that the occurrence of 



VOL. III. R 



