Birds of Gran Canarid. 5C9 



Caccabis rufa Red-legged Partridge. 



Caccabis rufa austraJis Tristram, Ibis, 1889, p. 28"^; 

 Hartert, Nov. Zool. p. 330 (1901); Thamier, Orn. Jaiirb. 

 xxi. p. 98 (1910). 



a. S . Ciieva de las Ninas, 3200 fr. lOtli Feb. '11. 



Iris light brown, soft part round eye coral-red ; bill bright 

 coral-red ; feet and legs coral-red. 



In 'The Ibis' for 1889 Canon Tristram described the 

 Partridge of Gran (^anaria under the naine C. rufa austra/is, 

 and in his paper pointed out the differences between this 

 and the European species C rufa. His chief grounds for 

 separating the insular form were: (1) the large size of the bill 

 and greater length of the tarsus ; (2) " a baud of reddish 

 brown on the nape and hind neck, brighter than in French 

 and English, but not brighter than in Spanish exam])les " ; 

 (3) '^ whereas in European birds the whole of the rest of the 

 upper parts are reddish brown, in the Canarian the back and 

 upper tail are slaty grey/' 



Apparently the last two points are founded on his com- 

 parison of a single specimen fi'om Canary with the material 

 in the Natural History ]\[useum. As I have now before me 

 the type-specimen of C. rufa australis (shot in March 1888), 

 kindly lent to me by Dr. J. A. Clubb, of the Liverpool 

 Museum, and also the entire material contained in the 

 Natural History INIuseum of both forms, I should like to 

 make one or two remarks on Canon Tristram's observations. 



With regard to the size of the beak in examples from Gran 

 Canaria, the only two specimens which I have from this 

 island certainly appear to have slightly larger bills, but this 

 is not the case with examples which I have examined from 

 Tenerife. Moreover, the tarsus is almost identical in length 

 with that of European birds. 



As regards the second character mentioned I must also 

 differ, the colour of the nape and hind neck agreeing exactly 

 with certain specimens of C rufa shot in England, although 

 it is certainly true that Spanish examples from Coruiia and 

 Madrid in the National Collection are considerablv brighter 



