PHASIANIDA, 503 
THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 
CAccaBis RUFA (Linnzus). 
This species—often called the French Partridge—bélongs to a 
well-defined group; the members of which resembl¢ each other in 
their partiality for dry or mountainous districts, their main pattern 
of coloration, the similarity of the sexes in plumage, and the presence 
of blunt spurs on the legs of. the males. The Red-legged Par- 
tridge was successfully acclimatized in England about 1770, when 
large numbers of. eggs were hatched under domestic fowls on 
two estates in Swffolk; and as the result of this and subsequent 
introductions it is now thoroughly established, not only in the 
above county, but also in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, 
Essex, some of the Midlands, and on dry ground along both sides 
of the Thames valley. Owing to similar but independent centres 
of dispersal, and a natural tendency on the part of the bird to seek 
congenial situations, it is also found in many other districts ; but 
under no circumstances has it thriven in the west, or on rich grass- 
lands, and its stronghold is in East Anglia. There it has even 
resisted attempts to exterminate it, made under the belief that it 
harassed the Grey Tartridge, while its habit of running used to 
render dogs unsteady and precluded the possibility of walking it up; 
