8 Lord Lilford^s Cruise in the Mediterranean. 



he, under the able care of the Marchese, one of the best- 

 arranged musemns of zoology in the world ; and I am sure 

 that all English naturalists will wish god-speed to an insti- 

 tution so thoroughly well managed, so competently governed, 

 and so delightfully situated as this. I was rather surprised 

 to find our English Grey Partridge {Perdix cinerea) pretty 

 abundant in the market, as, although tolerably common in 

 some parts of the plains and lower hills of northern Italy, I 

 had always thought that it avoided Liguria, in which province 

 I never met with it in my former shooting-rambles. I may 

 perhaps be allowed to say a few words here on the distribu- 

 tion of the four Eui'opean species of Partridge, which is cer- 

 tainly curious, and, I think, not much understood. The 

 Common Redlcg [Caccabis rufa) is the Partridge of Spain 

 from Irun to Tarifa, and from Lisbon to Barcelona. The 

 Barbary Partridge {Caccabis petros a) is found in that country 

 on the Rock of Gibraltar only, no doubt introduced by man 

 from the opposite coast ; this species seems never to quit the 

 Rock, where it is well protected. Within a few miles Caccabis 

 rufa is tolerably abundant, but (I speak under correction) 

 is never seen on the Rock itself. Throughout the Barbary 

 States of the Mediterranean C. petrosa is the common and, I 

 think, the only true Partridge. 



To return to Spain, the Grey Partridge is pretty common 

 in some of the north-western provinces, notably in those of 

 Leon and Astui'ias. I met with it sparingly in the Pyrenees 

 of Aragon, and have been informed of its occm'rence as far 

 south as Murcia. There is a tradition of the former existence 

 of C. petrosa in that province, in the neighbourhood of Carta- 

 gena ; but it has now disappeared there, more Francolino- 

 rum in Sicily. 



As I have before stated in this Journal, I have never been 

 able to meet with C. saxatilis alive or dead in Spain ; and, 

 as far as I know, there is no tradition of its existence in that 

 country, though it is not uncommon in some parts of Southern 

 France. In the latter country Caccabis rubra and Perdix 

 cinerea are the prevailing species, whilst Caccabis saxatilis 

 (the Bartavelle) is tolerably common in many places suitable 



