PERDIX. BIRDS. 279 



cheeks, throat, and fore part of the neck white, with a black band ; 

 a narrow black band on the flanks ; bill, around the eyes, and legs 

 red. 13 inches long. Southern Europe Tern. Man. 484. 



P. rubra, Briss. Throat and cheeks white, surrounded by a black 

 band, which spreads on the sides of the neck into a number of 

 spots and stripes of the same colour ; a broad white band above 

 the eyes ; upper parts of the body reddish gray ; belly red ; eighteen 

 feathers in the tail. 12 inches long. Inhabits Southern Eu- 

 rope. Lervins Brit. Birds, iii. pi. 137* 



P. petrosa, Lath. Forehead, top of the head, and nape, deep chest- 

 nut, spreading on the sides of the neck into a broad collar ; throat, 

 temples, and a broad band above the eyes bluish ash-colour ; upper 

 parts of the body reddish-gray ; wings with from 8 to 10 spots of 

 turquoise blue, bordered with orange ; tail of 18 feathers. 12 in- 

 ches long. Inhabits rocky Mountains of Europe. Tern. Man. 487- 



P. cinerea, Lath. Common Partridge. Plumage gray, varied with 

 red and black above ; yellowish- white beneath, varied with black 

 lines and rufous spots; a broad chestnut spot of a horse-shoe 

 form on the top of the belly, tail-feathers 18, the seven outer ones 

 on each side tipped with cinereous. 12 inches long. Inhabits 

 Europe. B. Selby, Illust. pi. 61. 



*** Bill deeper than broad ; orbits naked ; tail short. 



P. Virginiana, Lath. Body above brown-chestnut, varied with ru- 

 fous and black ; white beneath, transversely waved with dusky j 

 eyebrows and throat white ; jugulum with a black lunule ; lateral 

 tail-feathers gray. Wils. Amer. Orn. vi. pi. 47, fig. 2. 



**** fail very short., concealed by the feathers of the rump; first 

 quill-Jeather the longest. 



P. colurnix, Lath. (Tetrao, Lin.) Common Quail. Body rusty 

 gray, varied with black spots ; shafts of the feathers yellowish ; 

 eyebrows and a longitudinal stripe on the crown white ; throat 

 rufous. Female paler, with the throat white, and two blackish 

 brown bands. 7 inches long. Europe. B. Selby, Illust. pi. 62. 

 Quails are very generally distributed over the world. They arrive in Britain in 

 spring for incubation, and leave this country in August. With wind and weather 

 in their favour, they have been known to perform a flight of fifty leagues, across the 

 Black Sea, in the course of a night. Clouds of them also alight in spring along 

 the shores of Provence, where they are sometimes found so exhausted, that for a few 

 days at first they may sometimes be caught with the hand. The males fight fiercely 

 for the females ; and from their pugnacious disposition, they were exhibited in re- 

 gular combats both by the Athenians and Romans. The practice of quail- fight- 

 ing is still cherished in China, Sumatra, and some districts of Italy. Quails are 

 killed in great numbers for the table. 



Gen. 16. CRYPTONYX, Tern. Perdix, Lath. Liponyx^ Vieill. 



Bill short, thick, compressed ; mandibles of equal length, the 

 upper one straight and a little bent at the point ; nostrils la- 

 teral, longitudinally cleft, to wards the middle of the bill, covered 

 above by a broad naked membrane ; tarsus long ; three toes 



