Notes on Gran Canaria. '^7 



attribute the belief rather to tlie bird exercising its vocal 

 organs more lustily at this season ; because all the Quails I 

 have seen here appear to be of the small dark-coloured race 

 found in South Africa^ although even darker than the Cape 

 specimens. The wing is fully '25 inch shorter than in 

 British or Syrian specimens^ but exactl}'^ the same as in 

 Natal and Cape specimens. Not only is the throat-patch 

 black, but the dark chestnut breast is blotched with black 

 patches amid the fine white strise. I am quite sure our 

 friends across the Atlantic would make the Canarian a very 

 good subspecies at least. 



But the Partridge is yet more distinct. It is curious that 

 there should have been such uncertainty as to the distribu- 

 tion of this species. Webb and Berthelot state that the 

 Barbary Partindge {Caccabis petrosa) is found in Canaria, 

 Tenerife, Gomera, and Hierro, and make no mention what- 

 ever of Caccabis rufa. There is no doubt that C. petrosa is the 

 only Partridge of Tenerife and Gomera (of Hierro I know 

 nothing), but most certainly in Gran Canaria Caccabis rufa 

 is the only species known. It is found in small numbers 

 over the whole country, and seems to have a greater facility 

 in adapting itself to all kinds of country than its congener. 

 Thus while in Tenerife and Gomera the Barbary Partridge 

 aflFects especially the lofty cliffs overhanging the sea, and the 

 rocky declivities high up on the verge of and beyond the 

 limits of cultivation, the other species in Gran Canaria is 

 found from the coast, on the most barren shores, upwards on 

 the cultivated sides of the Barrancos, and even on the moun- 

 tain-tops, the barren cumbres, where vegetation has almost 

 ceased. Not only is it numerous in the barley- and wheat- 

 lields about San Bartolomeo, but I have put it up in the vine- 

 yards near Atalaya, and one day Mr. Meade- Waldo, walking 

 with me, flushed a pair evidently breeding on the barren 

 cinder-hills not a mile outside the city of Las Palmas. I 

 also put up a pair on the side of the Pico de las Nieves at 

 5700 feet, where there was absolutely no vegetation but a 

 small Draha (?), a dwarf crocus, and some lichens, and where 

 wc were walking over the snow which had fallen in the 



