142 FBANGOLIN. 



confined to a restricted zone between Licata^ Terranova, Butara, and 

 Caltagirone, from which a few individuals strayed as far as Partanna. 

 And so from year to year they became fewer and fewer. Some 

 years, in fact, I could not provide a single example for the orni- 

 thological collection of the museum of Palermo, and it was only in 

 1865 that I obtained from Count Terero an old skin killed on his 

 grounds. More recently another pair of skins came from my cor- 

 respondent Girgenti, obtained a few years back from the neighbourhood 

 of Terranova'. Three years ago, Mr. Howard Saunders, a distinguished 

 English ornithologist, when he returned to England, believed himself 

 authorised to declare in an article inserted in the 'Ibis,' that the 

 race of Francolin was extinct in the island. In contradiction to such 

 an assertion, other ornithologists, among whom were Salvadori and 

 myself, sustained the opinion that though nearly extinct, some indi- 

 viduals still lived in Terranova. The species only appearing at the 

 time of breeding, some specimens might in all probability escape the 

 persecution of the gun. As the question put in these terms might 

 be verified, I decided to place myself at Terranova, as much to 

 study the zoological conditions of this magnificent region as to resolve 

 the question of the Francolin. I must confess that I did not kill 

 the bird with my own hands, but from all the information I obtained 

 I arrived at this conclusion. First, that up to 1865 some specimens 

 were taken annually between Suaro and Butera, which were stuffed 

 with odoriferous herbs, and sent to the Christmas feast of the Prince 

 Monteleone o Pignatelli, who was the proprietor of this fertile country. 

 Secondly, later the species were reduced to a very rare individual 

 which was killed from time to time in the Falconara, near Terranova, 

 which property was recently acquired by the Baron Bordonaro, 

 where, in the autumn of 1869, perhaps, in fact the last individual 

 was taken, and eaten at a dinner in Terranova. This fact was 

 attested to me by the Prefect, and many hunters in the country. It 

 ■was also announced to me by Professor Tacchani, who had placed 

 himself there to notice the eclipse of 1870. Thirdly, that owing to 

 the extreme rarity of this bird, the Captain of the Garde Champetre 

 of Terranova, Don Diego Nuvarra, took the trouble to send me at 

 Palermo during the current year one or two individuals of the 

 desired species." 



"It results therefore from all this that the Francolin, though very 

 rare, still existed up to the autumn of 1869 in some of the southern 

 parts of the island, and that even now they are not exterminated, 

 unless within an infinitely short period. 



"As to the habits of this bird, I do not know how to indicate 



