220 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



tions converge from near the middle to the small end." (Life 

 Histories of North American Birds, pp. 39, 40.) These were the 

 first fully identified eggs of the Massena Partridge that had 

 ever fallen into the hands of science, and it is interesting to 

 know that they were not discovered until the year 1S90. We 

 have nowhere in the English language better and fuller accounts 

 of the life-histories of our North American Partridges than are 

 to be found in Bendire's great work from which I have just 

 quoted, and it is greatly to be regretted that so useful and accu- 

 rate an ornithological treatise should have, in being a govern- 

 ment publication, received, at least at the outstart, such a lim- 

 ited circulation. It offers a great temptation to me to quote 

 more extensively from its pages, but were I to do so I would 

 soon exceed the scope of the present volume and the proper lim- 

 its of this chapter. 



In many other parts of the world we meet with numerous 

 kinds of partridges, belonging to various genera not represented 

 in this country. Perdix cinerea — the Gray Partridge — is the 

 game bird of Great Britain. Subspecies of it are found in Siberia 

 and Tibet. Europe also has the Red-legged partridge (Caecabis 

 rufa), and another of the same genus, while fine forms of the sub- 

 family also occur in Africa and elsewhere. 



