THE MADAGASCAR PARTRIDGES. 15I 



passes, covered with stones and rocks, at elevations varying 

 from about 12,000 to 19,000 feet, where the only vegetation 

 is patches of mossy herbage. Very little is known either of 

 its habits or mode of nesting, but they appear to be very 

 similar to those of the Common Partridge, and the flight is 

 said to be identical. 



Eggs. — Much like those of P. perdix ; pale clay-brown, 

 slightly tinged with a reddish-brown towards the poles. 

 Measurements, 177 by V2 inch. 



IV. PRJEVALSKY'S PARTRIDGE. PERDIX SIFANICA. 



Perdix sifanica, Prjevalsky, Mongolia, ii. p. 124 (1876); id. in 

 Rowley's Orn. Misc. ii. p. 423 (1877); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. 

 B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 195 (1893). 



Adult Male and Female. — Like P. hodgso7iicE, but smaller, and 

 differ chiefly in having the black patch on the hinder part of 

 the cheek and side of the throat much si/iaHer, and mixed with 

 chestnut above ; no black patch on the middle of the breast, 

 all the feathers being white, barred with black like the rest of 

 the under-parts. 



Male: Total length, 10-5 inches; wing, 5-9; tail, 3-2 ; tar- 

 sus, I "6. 



Female: Somewhat smaller; wing, 5 '5 inches. 



Habits. — This species, Prjevalsky tells us, was met with 

 principally in the rhododendron thickets in the Alpine regions 

 of Kansu, where the mountains were covered with small tufts 

 of Potent ilia tenuifolia. It was also met with in the plains, 

 which are, however, at an elevation of 10,000 feet above the 

 sea-level. 



THE MADAGASCAR PARTRIDGES. GENUS 

 MARGAROPERDIX. 



Margaroperdix, Reichenb. Av. Syst. Nat. p. xxviii. (1852). 



Type, AI. madagascariensis (Scop.). 



Tail about half the length of the wing and composed of 



