OP THE BKITISH ISLANDS. 57 



Genus CACCABIS, or Rock Partridges. 



Type, CACCABIS SAXATILIS. 



Caccabis, of Kaup (1829). The birds comprising the present genus are 

 characterised by their nearly uniform upper plumage, conspicuous gorget, and 

 barred flanks. The wings are rounded and short, the first primary nearly equal 

 to the sixth, the third slightly the longest ; the tail is short, and composed of 

 fourteen feathers. The metatarsus is scutellated in front, reticulated behind, 

 and armed in the male with tubercles or spurs. The bill is short and stout, the 

 upper mandible arched from the base to the tip ; nostrils basal, shielded with an 

 oblong horny scale, but bare of feathers. Three toes in front ; one behind, small 

 and elevated. 



This genus is composed of about half-a-dozen species and varieties, which are 

 confined to the Eastern hemisphere, being inhabitants of the Southern Palaearctic 

 region and extreme northern portions of the Oriental region. One species has 

 been introduced into the British Islands, where it is a local resident. 



The Eock Partridges are dwellers in bare and mountainous country, scrub- 

 covered hillsides and thickets. They are birds of rapid but never long-sustained 

 flight, and on the ground run and walk with great ease. Their notes are loud 

 and harsh. They subsist chiefly on grain, seeds, fruit, berries, shoots of herbage, 

 and insects. Their nests are rude, and made on the ground ; their eggs are 

 numerous, and more or less spotted. Their flesh is of comparatively inferior 

 quality. 



