C AC CAB IS 677 



CACCABIS, Kaup, 1829. 



CACCABIS SAXATILIS, 



946. GREEK PARTRIDGE. 



Cacculis xc'.'-atttiit (Wolf and Meyer), Naturg. Vog. Deutschl. p. 87, pi. 48 

 (1805) ; (Xauin.), vi. p. 546, Taf. 164 ; (Gould), B. of E. iv. pi. 261, 

 fig. 2 ; Dresser, vii. p. 93, pi. 470, fig. 1 ; Ogilvie Grant, Cat. B. Br. 

 MILS. xxii. p. Ill ; C. f/rccca (Steph.), in Shaw's Gen. Zool. xi. p. 346 



(1819). 



Bartai'dlc, French ; Cortornice, Ital.; Steinhuhn, German. 



( ad. (Switzerland). Forehead, feathers round the base of the bill, 

 lures, and a stripe passing through the eye down the sides of the neck, 

 where it broadens and joins in front, black ; crown and upper parts 

 including the scapulars and inner secondaries dove-blue, the nape tinged 

 with vinous buff, the back washed with warm vinous, and the scapulars 

 and inner secondaries with buffy brown ; quills dark brown, externally 

 ochreous ; middle tail-feathers dove-blue, the rest dove-blue at the base, 

 otherwise fox-red ; chin and throat white ; breast-feathers dove-blue 

 edged with pale buff; abdomen and under tail-coverts warm ochreous; 

 flank-feathers dove-blue crossed by a black, then a white, and then a black, 

 band, and slightly tipped with chestnut-red ; bill, legs, and edge'of eyelid 

 coral-red ; iris dark brown. Culmen 0'85, wing 6*4, tail 3*9, tarsus 17 

 inch. Sexes aliko. 



Hal. The mountains of Southern Europe, the Eastern 

 Pyrenees, the Alps, Apennines, Carpathians, and Balkans; 

 Sicily. 



Inhabits stony, mountainous regions, only descending when 

 driven clown by stress of weather. As a rule it is tame and 

 unsuspicious, but very quarrelsome during the breeding season. 

 Its note resembles the syllables JcaJcabi, kakdbet uttered several 

 times in succession, and also coJc, cok, cokroo also several times 

 uttered. It feeds on grain, seeds, tender shoots, and insects. 

 It nests on the ground amongst the rocks, the nest being 

 merely a depression lined with a few leaves and grass-bents. 

 The eggs, which are deposited late in May or in June, vary in 

 number from 8 to 18 or even sometimes more, and are very 

 finely marked with reddish yellow on a pale yellowish ground ; 

 in size they measure about T59 by 119. 



Y Y 2 



