Order GALLING. 



Family PHASIANID^. 

 CACCABIS PETROSA (Gmelin). 



BAEBARY PARTRIDGE. 



Tetrao petrosus, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i, p. 758 (1788). 



Caccabis petrosa, Gray, List of Birds, pt. iii, Gall. p. 37 (1844) ; Ogilvie- 



Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxii, p. 120 ; Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. 



ii, p. 236 (1867) ; Koe^iig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 258 ; id. J. f. 0. 1893, p. 77 ; 



Whitakcr, Ibis, 1894, p. 98. 

 Perdix petrosa, Malherbe, Cat. Bais. d'Ois. Alg. p. 18 (1846). 

 Caccabis petrosa petrosa, Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1900, p. 25. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Kasrin, Central Tunisia. 



Middle of the forehead, crown, and nape chestnut ; sides of the forehead 

 and crown, cheeks, and the entire throat bluish-grey ; ear-coverts pale 

 chestnut ; a bright chestnut collar, spotted with white on the sides, almost 

 completely encircles the neck ; back and rest of the upper-plumage generally 

 greyish-brown ; some of the scapulars and upper wing-coverts bluish-grey, 

 margined with pale chestnut; median rectrices grey-brown, the remainder 

 with the greater part of the terminal portion bright chestnut ; upper breast 

 dull bluish-grey, becoming pale chestnut on the lower breast ; centre of 

 abdomen, crissum, and under tail-coverts rufous-buff; flanks conspicuously 

 barred with regular lines of white, black and chestnut, the bases of the 

 feathers dove-blue. 



Iris hazel ; bill and feet coral-red. 



Total length 13 inches, wing 650, culmen -75, tarsus 1-75. The tarsi are 

 furnished with knobs or blunt spurs. 



Adult female similar in coloration, but rather smaller, and without 

 spurs on the tarsi. 



The Barbary Partridge is most abundant in Tunisia, and is the 

 only species of Partridge to be found in the Eegency, and throughout 

 North-west Africa generally. It is to be met with in considerable 

 numbers in suitable localities throughout Algeria and Marocco, like- 

 wise in Tripoli, and in the Canaries. 



The distribution of the species is somewhat peculiar, for, besides 

 being found throughout North-west Africa and the Canaries, it occurs 



