228 GALLIFORMES CHAP. 
autumn as well as spring,! are olive-brown or buff, occasionally 
with small brown spots or a few white shell-markings. 
Ammoperdix bonhami of South-West Asia is a desert form of 
an isabelline colour, with blue-grey crown and throat, black fore- 
head and superciliary stripes, white lores and ear-coverts, a few 
black markings near the rump, chestnut hues on the tail and 
flanks, and longitudinal black bars on the latter. A. heyi, 
ranging from Nubia to the Jordan Valley and the Persian Gulf, 
has no black on the head, the frontal band being white, and the 
cheeks and mid-throat chestnut. The rufous and buff females of 
the two species are indistinguishable. They inhabit wastes and 
stony ravines up to four thousand feet, in pairs or small coveys ; 
crouching, to avoid detection, on the ground, which matches their 
colour; flymg like Quails; and uttering a reiterated double 
whistle. The eight to twelve eggs, of a plain drab tint, are 
deposited among stones or under tussocks, with hardly any nest. 
Caccabis rufa, the Red-legged or French Partridge, intro- 
duced into England from France, and inhabiting Western Europe 
generally from Belgium and Switzerland té& the Balearic Islands, 
Corsica, Elba, and South Italy, occurs in the Atlantic Islands, 
but not in Africa. The crown is grey, a black band outlines the 
throat and reaches past the eyes to the forehead, the upper parts 
are reddish-grey or brownish, and the tail is partly chestnut. The 
abdomen is bright buff, the chest grey with black margins to 
the feathers; chestnut, white, and black stripes adorn the flanks ; 
the bill, feet, and orbits are red. The male is only distin- 
ewushable by having rudimentary spurs. C. saxatilis, the Greek 
Partridge, has the chest plain and the flanks without white. 
It inhabits the Alps, Apennines, Carpathians, Balkans, and 
Sicilian hills; the eastern race, C. chukar, ranging from the 
Ionian Islands to Aden, Persia, Mongolia, and China, and being 
naturalized in St. Helena. C. magna of Tibet shews a double 
gorget of black and reddish. C. petrosa, the Barbary Part- 
ridge, has a chestnut crown and collar, with white spots on the 
latter; 1t occupies North-West Africa, Sardinia, several of the 
Canary Islands, and Gibraltar. C. spatzi of South Tunis differs 
slightly. C. melanocephala of South-West Arabia has a black 
crown, bluish upper parts, flanks marked with black and white, 
1 The nest is occasionally in a shrub, Hume, ed. Oates, Nests and Eggs of Indian 
Birds, iii. 1890, p. 435. 
