64 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family PHASIANID^. Genus PEKDIX. 



PARTRIDGE. 



PERDIX CINEREA. Latham. 

 PLATE XL, Fig 1. 



Tetrao perdix, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 276 (1766). 



Perdix cinerea, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. i. p. 290 (1787) ; Macgill. Brit. B. i. p. 218 



(1837) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 131, pi. 475 (1878) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. cd. 4, iii. 



p. 105 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 452 (1884) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. 



pt. ix. (1888) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 355 (1893) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. 



Eggs Brit. B. p. 276, pi. 59 (1896). 



Perdix perdix (Linn.), Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 185 (1893) ; Sharpc, Haudb. 

 B. Gt. Brit. iv. p. 282 (1897). 



Geographical distribution. British . The Partridge is a resident 

 throughout the agricultural districts of the British Islands wherever it is preserved. 

 It is absent from the Outer Hebrides, but has been introduced into the Orkneys. 

 Foreign: West Palasarctic region. It is local in Scandinavia up to lat. GG; West 

 Russia, north to lat. 60; East Russia, north to lat. 58; West Siberia, north to 

 lat. 57, in which locality it is a migrant, wintering in North Turkestan. South- 

 wards its range extends into Central Asia, North Persia, and the Caucasus : whilst 

 westwards into Europe it includes North Turkey and Austria, the lowlands of 

 Italy, North Spain, France, Germany, Holland, and Denmark. 



Allied forms. Perdix cinerea, var. robusta, an inhabitant of the Altai 

 Mountains. Differs from the Common Partridge in being greyer in colour, and 

 larger. P. daurica, an inhabitant of East Russian Turkestan, South-east Siberia, 

 East Mongolia, North-east Thibet, and North China. Differs from the Common 

 Partridge in having the horseshoe-shaped mark on the breast black instead of 

 chestnut, and the feathers on the throat elongated ; it is also a smaller and paler 

 bird. Two more distantly allied species, possessing eighteen instead of sixteen 

 tail feathers, are Perdix hodgsonice from Southern Thibet and the extreme north of 

 India, and Perdix sifanica from Kansu. Perdix damascena, from the mountains 

 of Central Europe, does not appear to us to be even subspecifically distinct from 

 the Common Partridge ; further investigation is necessary. A peculiar chestnut 

 variety (obtained alike in England, Scotland, and on the continent) has been 

 described by Brisson as distinct under the name of Perdix niontana. Another 

 local small form has been described from Galicia by Dr. Seoane under the name 

 of Perdix cinerea charrela, and by Dr. Reichenow as Perdix hispaniensis, but 

 whether the variations arc sufficiently important to warrant such a separation seems 

 doubtful. Possibly they are of subspecific value only. (Conf . Ibis. 1894, pp. 575-577) . 



