312 PHAoIANlD^. 



and in Ireland it appears to have been common in 1589. 

 Towards the end o£ the eighteenth century the ring-necked 

 species P- torquatus was introduced from southern China, 

 and since then several other species, P. turcestanicus, P. prin- 

 cipalis, and p. versicolor, have been imported, which have 

 also interbred freely with P. colchicus. At the present time 

 the British Pheasant is the descendant of mongrel stock. 



General Distribution. — The Pheasant inhabits the western 

 parts of Transcaucasia bordering the eastern and south-eastern 

 shores of the Black sea. It is also found in a wild state in the 

 northern parts of Asia Minor, Greece, south Turkey, and along 

 the western shores of the Black sea as far as the Balkans, and 

 in Albania, but in these places it may have been introduced 

 at some remote period. It has been known in Corsica since 

 1531, and has been introduced into most parts of Europe and 

 parts of North America. In north Caucasia, on the north- 

 western coast of the Caspian sea, it is represented by P- c. 

 septentiionalis, and on the western and south-western shores 

 by P. c. taliscliensis. Eastwards, across central Asia, its 

 place is taken by various other allied species. 



Genus CACCABIS Kanp, Naturl. Syst. 1829, p. 133. 

 Type : C. saxatilis (Wolf & Meyer). 



CaccSbis = KoKKajii?, a collateral form of icaKKdfSrjf a Partridge, in classical 

 Greek ; perhaps from its " cackling." Cf. KiKnajiav — the cry of the Screech- 

 Owl ; but Curtius wrongly connects it with KOKKau) = cacdre, and compares 

 Perdix, q. v. 



Caccabis rufa. Eed -legged Partridge. 



Tetrao rufas Linnceus, Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 160 : Sweden. 



Caccabis rufa {Linn.) ; B. 0. U. List, 1st ed. 1883, p. 141 ; 

 Ogilvie- Ch-ant, Cat. Birds B. M. xxii. 1893, p. 118 ; Saun- 

 ders, Manual, 2nd ed. 1899, p. 503. 

 Rufa ■= red. 



Distribution in the British Islands. — Introduced into Suf- 

 folk about 1770 and subsequently into other parts of East 



