458 BRITISH BIRDS. 
the Apennines, ranging also to Dalmatia and Sicily. In Greece*, Asia 
Minor, the islands of the Levant, Palestine, Persia, the Caucasus, Turkestan, 
Afghanistan, Scind, the Western Himalayas, the mountain-ranges dividing 
Siberia from Mongolia, Eastern Mongolia, and North China the Chukar 
Partridge (P. saxatilis var. chukar) occurs. This form is distinguished by 
having the throat buff instead of white (but examples from Cyprus are 
intermediate in this respect) and the lores buff instead of black. In 
North-east Tibet P. saxatilis var. magna occurs, a larger and paler race 
with a double neck-band, having the lores of the typical form, but the 
general coloration of the throat and upper parts of the Chukar Partridge. 
Other paler races from various localities in Palestine, Russia, Turkestan, 
Cashmere, and Chinese Turkestan, otherwise having the characteristics of 
the Chukar Partridge, have been called P. sawatilis vars. sinaica, pallescens, 
and pallidus, but are scarcely worthy of even subspecific rank. 
The Red-legged Partridge frequents very similar districts to those chosen 
by the Common Partridge, but is more often seen on heaths and commons 
than that species. It seems to have no preference for any kind of soil, and 
is found on both heavy and light lands. The bird is easily recognized, 
even at a distance, by its larger size and much darker colour, and the 
whirring sound made by the wings in flight is different to that made by 
the Common Partridge. It is a somewhat shy bird, and appears always to 
prefer running along the ground to taking wing: this peculiarity is 
especially manifest directly after a heavy fall of snow; the birds are 
unable to run over the soft and yielding surface, and seek shelter in the 
dense hedgerows or under whin bushes. When flushed the Red-legged 
Partridge often perches in the nearest trees, a practice in which the Common 
Partridge never indulges. It may sometimes be seen perched on the short 
thick hedges. Stevenson states that he has known a covey of these 
birds to be flushed from an oak tree, and that when chased in snowy 
_weather they frequently settle on the tops of the pollard oaks. They may 
also be seen sitting in rows on the tops of walls as Red Grouse often do, 
or perched on the ridge of a barn-roof or on a park-fencing. Stevenson 
(B. of Norfolk, i. p. 412) also states that “when alarmed they carry their 
heads erect, turning them in all directions to catch the sound of any 
approaching danger, and continue this even when running at their greatest 
speed. If undisturbed, however, and feeding leisurely, their appearance 
(as seen through a glass) is very different, and with feathers puffed out 
* Dresser, in his ‘Birds of Europe,’ includes the mainland of Greece in the range of 
P. saxatilis, on the faith of a skin in the collection of Canon Tristram, said to have been 
obtained in that country; but as Kriiper does not distinguish between the Partridges of 
the mainland and those of the Grecian Archipelago, and as eggs which I obtained near 
Athens and in the Parnassus are evidently those of the Chukar Partridge, it seems to me 
that Dresser must be mistaken. 
