NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 119 
Again, we are unable to accept the statement, that “ unlike the 
Pheasant, its immigration [a term wholly inapplicable] has not 
been attended with very great success.” So far from this being 
the case, there is abundant evidence to show that from all 
its centres of introduction it has spread in every direction, and is 
now to be found in many counties to which it must have found 
its way unaided by man’s intervention.* “It is, perhaps, 
fortunate,” says Mr. Dixon, “that the Red-legged Partridge does 
not thrive very well in this country, because in all the localities in 
which it has established itself, the Common Partridge has 
sensibly decreased in numbers, and in some places has been 
completely exterminated by the larger and much more pugna- 
cious species.” 
We do not know to what “places” Mr. Dixon refers, but 
having shot for many years in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and 
Sussex, in all of which counties the Red-legged Partridge is well 
established, we can assure him that the view above expressed is 
quite contrary to our experience. We have not only found a good 
stock of both species occupying the same farms, but have flushed 
covies of both in the same field, and have known many instances 
of their laying in each other’s nests. ‘That there is no danger of 
the Grey Partridge being “completely exterminated” by the 
Red-legged species, may be inferred from the statistics furnished 
by Prof. Newton, in an article in ‘ The Ibis,’ for 1861, p. 194. 
The statement (p. 167) that “the nesting season of the Red- 
legged Partridge is much earlier than that of the common 
species, the eggs being laid by the end of April or beginning of 
May,” is negatived by the fact that we have repeatedly seen eggs 
of the Grey Partridge during the first week of April, and eggs of 
both species, as above stated, in the same nest. 
But enough of adverse criticism. Mr. Dixon’s book has 
much in it to recommend it to the notice of all lovers of bird 
life; and if, here and there, there are passages which stand in 
need of correction, or amplification, there are many pages 
detailing the result of much patient observation, which will be 
acceptable to those who, with the same tastes as Mr Dixon, have 
had fewer opportunities of indulging them. 


* See an article ‘On the Local Distribution of the Red-legged Partridge,” 
in ‘The Field,’ 27th Jan. 1883. 
