696 PA SSA GE-HA WK—PA SSENGER-PIGEON 



Partridge has several congeners, all with red legs and plumage of 

 similar character. In Africa north of the Atlas there is the 

 Barbary Partridge, C. petrosa; in southern Europe another, G. 

 saxatilis, which extends eastward till it is replaced by C. chukar, 

 which reaches India, where it is a well-known bird. Two very 

 interesting desert-forms, supposed to be allied to Caccahis, are the 

 Ammoperdix heyi of North Africa and Palestine and the A. bonhami 

 of Persia ; but the absence of the metatarsal knob, or incipient 

 spur, suggests (in our ignorance of their other osteological characters) 

 an alliance rather to the genus Ferdix. On the other hand the 

 groups of birds known as Francolins and Snow-Partridges are 

 generally furnished with strong but blunt spurs, and therefore prob- 

 ably belong to the Caccabine group. Of the former, containing 

 many species, there is only room here to mention, in addition to 

 what has been before (page 291) said of that which used to occur 

 in Europe, the possibility, as some think, of its having been the 

 Aitagas or Attagen of classical authors,^ a bird celebrated for its 

 exquisite flavour. Of the latter it is only to be said here that 

 those of the genus Tetraogallus, often called Snow-PHEASANT, are the 

 giants of their kin, and that nearly every considerable range of 

 mountains in Asia seems to possess its specific form ; while the 

 genus Lerwa contains but a single species, L. nivicola, which is 

 emphatically the Snow-Partridge of Himalayan sportsmen. 



By English colonists the name Partridge has been very loosely 

 applied, and especially so in North America. Where a qualifying 

 Avord is prefixed no confusion is caused, but without it there is 

 sometimes a difficulty at first to know whether the Eufl"ed Grouse 

 {Bonasa timhellus) or the Virginian Colin (Ortyz virginianus) is 

 intended, while the " Partridge-Hawk " of the same country is 

 Astur atricapillus (Goshawk), and the " Partridge - Pigeon " of 

 Australia is a species of Geophaps (Bronze-WING). 



PASSAGE-HAWK, in moderii falconers' language, is one taken 

 on its passage or migration, generally in Holland. It is therefore 

 always what in old time was called a " Haggard," and when trained 

 is more valued than a NiAS. 



PASSENGER-PIGEON, so-called in books, but in North 

 America commonly known as the " Wild Pigeon," the Edopistes 

 migratorius of ornithology, the bird so famous in former days for 

 its multitude, and still occasionally to be found plentifully in some 

 parts of Canada and the United States, though no longer appearing 

 in the countless numbers that it did of old, when a flock seen by 

 Wilson was estimated to consist of more than 2230 millions. The 



^ However, many naturalists have maintained a different opinion — some 

 making it a Woodcock, a Godwit, or even the Hazel-hen (Grouse). The ques- 

 tion has been well discussed by Lord Lilford {Ibis, 1862, pp. 352-356). 



