( 156 ) 

 DR. L. BUREAU'S WORK ON THE PARTRIDGE. 



BY 



N. F. TICEHURST. 



In Vol. v., No. 8 (1.1.12), pp. 210-18, we had the pleasure 

 of drawing the attention of British ornithologists to 

 Dr. Bureau's work on the Common Partridge {Perdix 

 p. perdix). His second memoir, dealing with the Red- 

 legged Partridge {Caccahis r. rufa) has now appeared* 

 in a similar volume of 143 pages, illustrated with fifty- 

 four plates and diagrams, the result of seventeen years 

 of field-work. It is even more replete with diagrams 

 and facts than the former volume, and though the wealth 

 of detail will doubtless prove somewhat wearisome 

 to the ordinary sportsman, it cannot fail to be of interest 

 to the working ornithologist, and bears eloquent testimony 

 to the cafe and accuracy with which the author has carried 

 out his task. The present memoir is planned on the 

 same lines as its predecessor and the same methods of 

 study have been pursued, so that there is no need here 

 to recapitulate the ground-plan of the work, which was 

 dealt with fairly fully in considering the first memoir 

 (Vol. v., pp. 210-12). On page 74 will be found the 

 author's " Chronometric Table," similar to that of the 

 Common Partridge, whereby anyone can determine 

 the age of a young Red-legged Partridge from the 29th 

 day (when its juvenile tenth primary is lost) up to the 

 age of 130 days, when the third primary of the first 

 winter-plumage is full-grown and the bird itself is full- 

 grown, and through its first moult, which in Loire 

 Inferieur, whence the author's material was derived, 

 occurs about the beginning of November. As has 

 already been implied {antea, Vol. V., p. 348) by Mr. 

 Heatley Noble, in pointing out the distinction between 

 old and young Red-legged Partridges — ^viz., the pointed 

 extremity and yellowish-white spot on the inner web of 



* Louis Bureau : L'age des Perdrix. — II. La Perdrix rouge. 8vo, 

 pp. 143, fig. 54. Nantes, Vie, libraire, 28 Passage Pommeraye. London, 

 Williams and Norgate, 14, Henrietta Street. Covent Garden. 



