on the Breeding of Hey's Rock-Parh idge.



265



“ This lovely little bird, smaller than the Grey Partridge,

abounds in the rocks near the Dead Sea, but is never found

more than a few miles from that lake, though common in Arabia

Petrcea. It runs in large coveys, and is flushed with difficulty,

as the birds have a habit of separating and concealing them¬

selves behind stones without rising ; but once startled it has a

vigorous flight. It has a habit, singular for a Partridge, of

laying its eggs in holes and fissures of the rocks. ... I once

found a nest in a deep hole in the side of the cliff, containing

twenty-seven eggs, sixteen of which were of the preceding

year and addled, the others being quite fresh.”


The two members of the genus Ammoperdix, have the

following very distinct distribution. < 8 )


A. bonhami. Bonham’s Rock-Partridge; “South-Western

Asia, extending westwards to the Euphrates Valley, eastwards to

North-West India, in the north to Transcaspia, and south to

Aden.”


A.heyi. Hey’s Rock-Partridge ; “Both sides of the Red

Sea, extending north to the Dead Sea, westwards to Egypt and

Nubia, about as far south as 20° N. latitude, and eastwards to

Muscat, Persian Gulf.”


When one looks through the skins of Hey’s Partridge in

the British (Nat. Hist.) Museum one finds that they fall into two

very well-marked divisions. The Palestine and Egyptian form

is as I have described below, but birds from the Persian Gulf are

slightly smaller and more vinaceous in general colouring. This

variety Mr. Ogilvie-Grant has named A. chomleyi. ( 8a )-


The colouring of my birds is as follows. Adult male:

Bill orange ; legs dull yellow ; head, neck and throat plum grey;

ear-coverts white; scapulars and wing-coverts reddish fawn with

no markings ; flight-feathers olivaceous, the outer web barred with

reddish fawn and dark grey ; croup and rump sandy yellow closely

beset with dark grey bars ; tail of twelve feathers, the two central



(8) W. R. Ogilvie-Grant. Vide sup.


(8 a) A11 example of the need of a three-name S}-stem. It is much


to be wished, by the way, that before this change comes, as come it must,

■ornithologists will have dropped the mis-use of an Algebraic expression, and

will call the method “ tri-nomiual.”



