PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 41 



(Perdix montana), or as the Cheshire-partridge. Herein the head and neck are of 

 a bright rufous buff, and the rest of the plumage rich chestnut, some of the feathers 

 of the upper surface, especially the wing-coverts, being usually more or less vermi- 

 culated with pale greyish or yellowish white and black. The quills are washed 

 with the same chestnut tint. The sexes of this variety are indistinguishable. 

 Every intermediate stage between the most typical red forms and normal examples 

 of P. perdix is to be met with ; and examples have been procured in almost every 

 county in England and Scotland. In the grey variety the forehead, superciliary stripe, 

 chin, and throat are whitish, washed with very pale rufous, and the general colour of 

 the rest of the plumage is clear grey, vermiculated with black. The horse-shoe patch 

 on the breast is pale greyish brown, or pale chestnut colour. White and Isabelline 

 varieties also occur, but are of less interest (W. R. Ogilvie-Grant in litt.). [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In England the grey-partridge is widely distributed, but 

 has greatly diminished in numbers of late years in many districts, though still 

 very numerous in the light sandy soils of East Anglia and some of our southern 

 counties. It occurs in Anglesey and in Wales up to about 1200 feet, but is local in 

 Scotland and confined to the straths and lowlands, avoiding the mountain ranges 

 and moorlands. It is absent from the Outer Hebrides, and has only been intro- 

 duced successfully to a few of the Inner Hebrides, while attempts to naturalise it 

 in the Orkneys have proved failures. It breeds in every Irish county, but is not 

 numerous, and tends to become scarcer. Outside the British Isles it is resident in 

 Southern Sweden, and in Russia ranges to 66 in Finland, 64 in the Archangel 

 government, and 58 \ in the Urals. From these limits it is fairly general in the 

 countries of the European plain, but in the Pyrenees and Northern Spain is replaced 

 by a closely allied race. Eastward it ranges to North Italy, the Balkan Peninsula 

 south to Thessaly, and South Russia. In Asia it is found in parts of Asia Minor, 

 the Persian highlands, and Siberia to the foot of the Altai range, but farther east 

 it is replaced by other forms. Although sedentary in the British Isles, it is subject 

 to migratory movements on the Continent, especially in South-eastern Europe. 

 [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. Resident, but not altogether stationary although there is 

 no evidence of any regular British movements. Coveys have been seen to cross the 

 Solway Firth " from the slopes of the Dumfriesshire hills to the well-cultivated 

 lands of the Cumbrian plain" (cf. Macpherson, The Partridge, 1893, p. 8). There 

 are also records of birds which have apparently crossed the English Channel, but 

 probably accidentally (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 387), and of examples 



VOL. IV. F 



