39 [Vol. xxix. 



throat white mixed with rufous ; middle of the chest pale 

 chestnut ; breast and belly white ; sides,, flanks, and thighs 

 blackish, margined with white ; under tail-coverts chestnut 

 and blacky widely tipped with pale rufous. Iris brownish 

 black ; bill and legs brown. Culmen 12 mm. ; wing 75 ; 

 tail 39 ; tarsus 23. 



Hab. Kaffa, S.W. Abyssinia. 



Type iu the British Museum : ^ . Charada, GOOO ft., 

 28. V. 05 (P. ZapUro). Presented by W. N. McMillan, 

 Esq. 



Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant exhibited a series of examples 

 of the Common Partridge {Perdix perdix), to illustrate two 

 remarkable seasonal changes of plumage which occur in the 

 male and female, aud which had not hitherto been recorded. 

 Dealing first with the male Partridge, he pointed out that 

 during the autumn-moult, which lasts from July to the 

 beginning of September, the cock assumed a partial eclipse- 

 plumage on the sides of the head and on the neck, a 

 peculiaiity which had first been pointed out to him by 

 Mr. G. E. Lodge. This plumage consisted of light umber- 

 brown feathers with very narrow buff shaft-stripes, finely 

 bordered with black : it replaced for a period of some two 

 months the normal feathers, which were grey, finely waved 

 with black. 



The head and neck being the last portions of the bird to 

 renew their feathers, it was a common occurrence to find 

 old males, in the early part of September, with the sides of 

 the head and neck still retaining the eclipse-plumage. Such 

 specimens were frequently mistaken by sportsmen for very 

 " forward " young birds. The remains of the first plumage 

 on the sides of the neck' in birds of the year were, however, 

 very different from the eclipse-plumage of adult males, the 

 former being sandy-brown with much wider and more 

 distinct buff shaft- stripes. The feathers of the immature 

 plumage were, moreover, much longer and more pointed 

 than the eclipse-feathers of the adult. 



While examining female Partridges to ascertain whether 



