150 GREEK PABTBIDGE. 



have seen several exactly similar in all respects with P. chuhar." 



According to this opinion the smaller of the two birds sent me by 

 Canon Tristram from Crete, is equal to the P. cliukar of Gray; atid 

 it follows, I think, if this is so, that P. grceca and P. chuhar are 

 one and the same species, for surely we cannot maintain for a 

 moment that the difference of colour in the throat is sufficient to 

 constitute specific difference. Canon Tristram, however, does not 

 consider that his smaller specimen is sufficiently deep rufous, for he 

 remarks, — "I never saw the white throat from India, or the rufous 

 one from Western Europe. Turkey and Syria are debatable ground 

 held by both varieties." 



I have not been able to get a Swiss skin for comparison. As 

 Canon Tristram observes, however, the question is one of "race," or 

 of eastern and western varieties of the same species. M. Bouteille, 

 as quoted by M. Degland, has succeeded in obtaining a hybrid 

 between P. grcBca and P. rubra, the males being more like the 

 former, the females more like the latter. Both had the black collar 

 of the Greek Partridge and the black sj)ots which follow it in the 

 Trench Partridge, but smaller and less numerous. The feathers on 

 the flanks of the male were more like those of grceca, in the female 

 more like rubra. 



The Greek Partridge is found, as its name implies, in Greece and 

 the islands of the Archipelago, in Italy, Sicily, Switzerland, and 

 Turkey. Thence it spreads into Syria, being replaced in Persia and 

 India by the form known as P. chuhar. It is found in some parts 

 of Germany and France, and among the mountains of the Jura, the 

 Alps, and the Pyrenees. Specimens from Japan are, according to 

 Temminck, exactly like those found in Europe. Lord Liltord, 

 ("Ibis," vol. ii, p. 238,) says it is the Common Partridge of the 

 Epirus and the Ionian Islands, but is not very abundant in Corfu, 

 where it is only met with on the ridge of San Salvador. He further 

 remarks: — "The Greek Partridge haunts the stony hill sides, never, 

 as far as my own observation goes, descending to the plain. It is 

 not easy to make a good bag of these birds, even in localities where 

 they are numerous, as the coveys disperse on being disturbed, and 

 on alighting each bird takes a line of its own, and sets off running 

 to the nearest covert, which, in these parts generally consists of thick 

 evergreen shrubs, from which it is very difficult to flush them. In 

 the Ionian Islands they are most abundant in Cephalonia, Santa 

 Maura, Kalumo, Petula, Arkudi, and Meganisi. The flesh of this 

 species is, to my taste, far superior to that of either of its congeners, 

 P. rubra or P. peArosa.'''' 



