406 TETRAONJD.E. 



estates in Ireland; but in two years the breed was lost. 

 Sir William Jar dine observes, in the Naturalist's Library, 

 that " the Virginian Partridge has been attempted to be 

 introduced in several parts of the European continent, 

 but we are uncertain with what success. They have also 

 been tried in some of the English counties." Two or three 

 authors have recorded that a quantity of the Virginian 

 Partridge were turned down by Edward John Littleton, 

 Esq., on his estates at Teddesley, in Staffordshire ; and one 

 gentleman states that the guard of a coach informed him 

 that he had the care of a basket of these birds by his 

 coach ; that they all by some accident got out and flew 

 away; and that in the part of the country where they 

 made their escape (the name of the place was forgotten), 

 they had bred and increased exceedingly. In the col- 

 lection of Mr. Henson, at Cambridge, was a specimen of 

 this bird which was killed at Holkham : and in a letter 

 quoted by Mr. H. Denny in the 13th volume of the Annals 

 of Natural History, written to him in November, 1825, by 

 the Rev. John Burrell, F.L.S., Rector of Letheringsett, 

 near Holt in Norfolk, a zealous naturalist, it is stated in 

 reference to this Virginian Ortyx, of which he had ob- 

 tained a specimen in the season of 1824, and another in 

 1825, in that county, " it is now quite a colonised creature, 

 and numerous are the coveys which, report says, the 

 poachers cannot destroy, its manners are so watchful, and 

 the bird so shy of man." In further reference to the ex- 

 istence of this species in Norfolk, the Rev. Richard Lub- 

 bock wrote me as follows : "A nest was found at Barton 

 in this county, three or four years back, containing nume- 

 rous white eggs, which were sold to a bird-preserver in 

 Norwich. Two are in my possession. I endeavoured to 

 ascertain the whole number of the eggs, but could not : 

 there must have been above a dozen. The nest was found 



