140 WANDElilNGS OF A 



having seen " red-legged partridges " in Kurdistan, but does 

 not identify species. The red-leg of south-eastern Europe (C. 

 grcRcd) does not appear to differ in any well-marked degree 

 from the above, inasmuch as several specimens obtained by 

 me in the market of Constantinople, when attentively com- 

 pared with G. chuhar from the Himalayas,- showed only a 

 slight difference in the intensity of the white of the throat 

 and the rufous of the ear coverts, which did not even appear 

 ■^to be constant. When we are enabled to trace a bird over a 

 continent, and find that we change climate and enter on a 

 country widely different in its physical aspects, it is surely 

 not extravagant to expect that there wiU be some change in 

 the colour of its external coverings, or even the size of the 

 animal. 



The sisi (Ammoperdix honham'i), or bastard chukore, as 

 it is known to Europeans, is much smaller than the last. 

 The male measures in the flesh about 10 inches, the female 

 about 9j inches. The iris is hazel, biU brownish-yeUow, 

 lighter on the legs. Its existence has been known to natural- 

 ists for several years, but all the specimens were brought 

 from Afghanistan, where it abounds in sandy wastes and 

 barren mountains. The sisi is not found in Ladakh, nor 

 on the ranges to the south and east ; and I think, with the 

 Salt and Suliman chains, and probably the mountains around 

 the forbidden Khyber Pass, we define its limits eastward and 

 in British India. A species, closely allied both in size and 

 plumage {A. heyii), I procured in rocky and barren gorges on 

 the banks of the Nile in Nubia. It is a native likewise of 

 Palestine and Syria. The sisi often associates with the 

 chukore, to which in habits it bears a close resemblance ; 

 the caU-note, however, is very different. The pretty little 

 redbreast (Muscicapa imna) is very much like the robin 



