BARBARY PARTRIDGE. 389 



The Zoological Society have received skins of this Par- 

 tridge sent by Messrs. Dickson and Ross from Fezzan. 

 The note appended was as follows. " Killed in December 

 1842. Very common all over the country, frequenting 

 ravines, hills, and all places where they can find cover, and 

 often met with even in our gardens ; flies in coveys ; a shy 

 bird ; used as food by the natives, though its flesh is dry 

 and without flavour. Its heart is so small that it does not 

 exceed that of a sparrow." 



Our countryman George Edwards, who gave a figure of 

 this species in 1802 in his Gleanings in Natural History, 

 says, " A pair of these birds were sent to me alive by my 

 good friend Mr. Thomas Rawlings, merchant, residing at 

 Santa Cruz, in that part of Barbary without the Straights 

 of Gibraltar, on the Atlantic Ocean. I have not heard that 

 the Red-legged Partridge, either European or African, 

 were ever increased in England, though both sorts are fre- 

 quently brought hither." 



Of the islands of the Mediterranean the Barbary Par- 

 tridge is found in Majorca, Minorca, Corsica, Sardinia, and 

 Sicily ; and north of the Mediterranean is said to be abun- 

 dant in Spain, inhabits Provence and France, has been 

 found in Germany, Italy, and Greece, and eastward as far 

 as the country of Mount Caucasus. 



In its habits the Barbary Partridge, it is said, very 

 closely resembles the Red-legged Partridge last described. 

 " The female chooses barren places and desert mountains, 

 where, among low bushes she deposits her eggs to the 

 number of fifteen, of a yellowish colour, thickly dotted 

 with greenish olive spots. Seeds, grain, and insects, are 

 selected as food." 



The beak and a bare space around the eyes red ; irides 

 hazel ; sides of the head above and below the eye bluish 



