BARBARY PARTRIDGE. 401 



from Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, in April, 1842. 

 The plumage did not exhibit the slightest indication that 

 the bird had been in confinement; it was a female, and 

 the eggs inside were as large as sloes. I received this in- 

 formation from Mr. Robert Widdowson, of Melton Mow- 

 bray, who then possessed the specimen, and who sent me 

 up a coloured drawing, taken from the bird, by which the 

 species was immediately recognised. Two or three years 

 ago, a bird of this same species was shot by a nobleman 

 when sporting on the estate of the Marquis of Hertford, at 

 Sudbourn, in Suffolk, where it was considered that a few 

 of the eggs of the Barbary Partridge had been introduced 

 with a much larger quantity of those of the more common 

 red-legged birds, at the time the country about Sudbourn 

 and "VVickham Market was stocked by means of eggs ob- 

 tained from the Continent by the Marquis of Hertford and 

 Lord Rendlesham, about 1770, as mentioned in the history 

 of the species last described. 



This specimen of the Barbary Partridge passed into 

 the possession of Mr. Thomas Goatley, of Chipping Nor- 

 ton, Oxfordshire ; who most kindly lent me the preserved 

 bird for my use in this work, and the figure here given 

 w r as drawn from this British-killed Barbary Partridge. As 

 a species it is immediately distinguished from the more 

 common Red-legged Partridge, which precedes it in this 

 work, by the chestnut collar surrounding the neck, which 

 is studded with small round white spots, and is much 

 broader, and therefore more conspicuous in the male than 

 in this example, which is a female. 



The Barbary Partridge is found in Africa as far south 

 as Senegal, extending its range northward over Morocco 

 and Barbary, and from thence eastward to Algeria, where 

 it is said by M. Malherbe to be very common. It is the 

 Rock Partridge and Gambia Partridge of BufFon. 



VOL. II. D D 



