COMMON PARTRIDGE. 379 



eludes this bird in his Fauna of Scandinavia, and it is found 

 in suitable localities over the European continent to the 

 shores of the Mediterranean. M. Teinminck says it inha- 

 bits Barbary and Egypt ; and two Russian naturalists have 

 included it in their catalogues of the birds found in the 

 country between the Black and the Caspian Seas, south 

 of the Caucasian mountain range. Though stationary all 

 the year in central Europe, this bird is said to be migratory 

 in the countries that are at the limits of its geographical 

 range ; thus M. Malherbe in his Fauna of Sicily, says 

 it visits that island every spring and autumn, when on 

 its passage from North Africa to Italy and back. 



The adult male has the beak bluish white ; the irides 

 hazel ; behind the eye, and above the ear-coverts, a small 

 triangular patch of naked red skin ; the forehead, the space 

 between the beak and the eye, with the feathers extending 

 backwards as far as the ear-coverts, and downwards cover- 

 ing the front of the neck and throat, bright yellowish 

 chestnut ; top of the head and back of the neck greyish 

 brown ; the back and wing-coverts freckled with two 

 shades of chestnut brown on a ground of wood-brown, 

 the shaft of each feather forming a conspicuous streak 

 of pale wood-brown ; the wing-primaries, or flight-feathers, 

 greyish brown, with transverse bars of wood-brown ; the 

 rump and upper tail-covers, some of which are long, 

 freckled with two shades of brown, and barred transversely 

 with chestnut ; tail-feathers uniform reddish chestnut. The 

 neck and upper part of the breast, the sides, and flanks, 

 light bluish grey, minutely freckled with dark grey ; lower 

 breast with a rich chestnut- coloured horse-shoe-shaped 

 patch on a ground of white ; sides and flanks barred with 

 chestnut; thighs greyish white; under tail-coverts yellowish 

 brown ; the legs and toes bluish white ; the claws brown. 



