118 PHASIANID^:. 



generally in an exhausted condition, and although they have 

 even heen seen by an intelligent witness making for the land, 

 at a distance of from four to five miles out at sea, yet there 

 is in this nothing inconsistent with the probability of their 

 having flown out to sea from our eastern shores, where they 

 are already plentiful, and, having misjudged the distance, 

 returning in an exhausted state. This frequently happens 

 with Common Partridges shot at in the vicinity of the sea. 

 Neither is there any country to the north or east of England 

 whence they could have migrated, the species being unknown 

 in Scandinavia and in Northern Germany. The very fact 

 that, as stated by Sir Thomas Browne more than two cen- 

 turies ago, this Partridge was then unknown in the eastern 

 counties, and continued to be so until its introduction, is 

 one of the strongest arguments against its vernal immi- 

 gration at the present time. 



In Belgium the Red-legged Partridge is almost unknown, 

 nor is it abundant in the northern districts of France, but 

 in Savoy it is tolerably numerous, and spreads for a short 

 distance into Switzerland, where it meets with a larger and 

 stronger congener, C. saxatilis.* Throughout central and 

 southern France it is generally distributed, and it is the only 

 species of Red-leg indigenous to the Iberian Peninsula. 

 Strong evidence of its non -migratory nature is afforded by 

 the fact that although abundant on the hills of Spain within 

 sight of the opposite coast of North Africa, it has never been 

 known to cross the Straits ; nor does it even visit the neigh- 

 bouring Rock of Gibraltar, which is occupied by an intro- 

 duced species, the Barbary Partridge, C. petrosa. In Italy it 

 is local, for in the Apennines its extension eastwards is again 

 barred by C. saxatilis, and it becomes rare in the southern 

 provinces ; and in Sicily, again, C. saxatilis is the only in- 

 digenous Partridge. In the Balearic Islands ; in Elba ; and 

 in Corsica, the Red-legged Partridge is the only representa- 

 tive of the group ; but in Sardinia its place is occupied by 

 C. petrosa, the only Partridge found in Northern Africa, 



* A hybrid between these two species was described by M. Bouteille (Orn. da 

 Dauphine, ii. p. 337) under the name of Perdix Idbatiei. 



