Avifauna of Italy. 207 



lection possesses no less than seven specimens. Of these^ two 

 njales and a female are Tuscan, amongst the last killed at 

 Artimino, near Empoli, where it appears that this bird was 

 introduced under the Medici ; two of these specimens were 

 in the Florence Museum as far back as 1790. The four 

 others are all Sicilian : a pair, male and female, were shot 

 near Caltagirone in April 1850; I received them in exchange 

 from the University Museum at Catania ; I have not the 

 dates of the remaining two, which are evidently older. 

 There are two specimens, male and female, still at Messina, 

 two at Catania, and one at Syracuse; a genuine Sicilian 

 specimen is in the Civic Museum at Genoa. 



Perdix saxatilis, Meyer. 



This species ranges along the Alps and down the central 

 chain of the Apennines into Sicily, where it is the only 

 species. It is also common in Dalmatia, where this species, 

 and not P. chukar (if that be really distinct), is found. 



Perdix rubra, Briss. 



Occurs in the lesser branches of the northern and central 

 Appenines, in the islands of Elba and Montecristo, and all 

 over Corsica, where it is the only species *. 



Perdix petrosa (Gm.) 



Is entirely confined to Sardinia. 



TuRNix sylvatica (Desfont.). 



Very local, and only found in Sicily. Our collection pos- 



* While in Corsica I was repeatedly assured of the presence in the 

 idand among the hills of Aleria, on the eastern coast, of the Pheasant 

 i^Phasianus colchicus) in a perfectly wild condition. I see that Mr. Jesse 

 reports the same thing, though Mr. 0. B. Wharton does not mention this 

 species in his list of Corsican birds. I am still making inqiuries on the 

 subject ; but, so far as I can see, no record of its introduction by man is 

 forthcoming. Should such remain the case, I shall not hesitate to add 

 the Pheasant to the list of our indigenous species. The fauna of Corsica 

 has stranger points; and the island which held (up to Neolithic times) living 

 Myolagus, and now divides with Dalmatia the home of that curious 

 lizard Podarces oxycephalus, may have retained from an epoch not more 

 remote than the days when the Argonauts sailed from Colchis, the famed 

 (jiaaiavos, which is to our day wild in the forests of Albania. 



