458 BRITISH BIRDS. 



the Apennines, ranging also to Dalmatia and Sicily. In Greece*, Asia 

 Minor, the islands of the Levant, Palestine, Persia, the Caucasus, Turkestan, 

 Afghanistan, Scind, the Western Himalayas, the mountain-ranges dividing 

 Siberia from Mongolia, Eastern Mongolia, and North China the Chukar 

 Partridge (P. saxatilis var. chukar) occurs. This form is distinguished by 

 having the throat buff instead of white (but examples from Cyprus are 

 intermediate in this respect) and the lores buff' instead of black. In 

 North-east Tibet P. saxatilis var. magna occurs, a larger and paler race 

 with a double neck-band, having the lores of the typical form, but the 

 general coloration of the throat and upper parts of the Chukar Partridge. 

 Other paler races from various localities in Palestine, Russia, Turkestan, 

 Cashmere, and Chinese Turkestan, otherwise having the characteristics of 

 the Chukar Partridge, have been called P. saxatilis vars. sinaica, pallescens, 

 anApallidus, but are scarcely worthy of even subspecific rank. 



The Red-legged Partridge frequents very similar districts to those chosen 

 by the Common Partridge, but is more often seen on heaths and commons 

 than that species. It seems to have no preference for any kind of soil, and 

 is found on both heavy and light lands. The bird is easily recognized, 

 even at a distance, by its larger size and much darker colour, and the 

 whirring sound made by the wings in flight is different to that made by 

 the Common Partridge. It is a somewhat shy bird, and appears always to 

 prefer running along the ground to taking wing : this peculiarity is 

 especially manifest directly after a heavy fall of snow; the birds are 

 unable to run over the soft and yielding surface, and seek shelter in the 

 dense hedgerows or under whin bushes. When flushed the Red-legged 

 Partridge often perches in the nearest trees, a practice in which the Common 

 Partridge never indulges. It may sometimes be seen perched on the short 

 thick hedges. Stevenson states that he has known a covey of these 

 birds to be flushed from an oak tree, and that when chased in snowy 

 weather they frequently settle on the tops of the pollard oaks. They may 

 also be seen sitting in rows on the tops of walls as Red Grouse often do, 

 or perched on the ridge of a barn-roof or on a park-fencing. Stevenson 

 (B. of Norfolk, i. p. 412) also states that "when alarmed they carry their 

 heads erect, turning them in all directions to catch the sound of any 

 approaching danger, and continue this even when running at their greatest 

 speed. If undisturbed, however, and feeding leisurely, their appearance 

 (as seen through a glass) is very different, and with feathers puffed out 



* Dresser, in his ' Birds of Europe,' includes the mainland of Greece in the range of 

 P. saxatilis, on the faith of a skin in the collection of Canon Tristram, said to have been 

 obtained in that country ; but as Kriiper does not distinguish between the Partridges of 

 the mainland and those of the Grecian Archipelago, and as eggs which I obtained near 

 Athens and in the Parnassus are evidently those of the Chukar Partridge, it seems to me 

 that Dresser must be mistaken. 



