98 



series I find it impossible to recognize any specific difference between the different races, the chief 

 difference being that of shade of colour. Mr. Severtzoff, who is at present working with me, also 

 informs me that every shade of eolour, from the palest to the average Himalayan form, was met with 

 in the same tract of country by Colonel Przevalsky when collecting in Mongolia. I find also some 

 slight variation in size, as will be seen from the following table of measurements of examples from 



various localities : — 



Culmen. Wing. Tail. Tarsus, 



inch. inches. inches. inches. 



Rhodes, 2,6 0-80-0-95 5-90-6-5 3-50-3-9 1.65-1-8 



Cyprus 0-92 6-40-6-5 3-50-3-6 1-70-1-8 



Asia Minor, ?, 6 . . .0-85-0-95 5-80-6-1. 3-40-3-6 1-60-1-65 



Palestine 0-90 6-30 3-50 1-80 



Persia 0-80-0-9 6-25 3-25-3-4 1-70-1-8 



Mesopotamia 0-90-1-0 6-40-6'7 3-65-39 1-85-2-0 



? Altai 0-90 6-30 3'90 2-0 



India 0-75-0-9 6-30-6-6 3-60-3-7 1-65-1-75 



Mr. Severtzoff further informs me that in Turkestan he remarked the same individual variation in coloration 

 of plumage as was observed in Mongolia by Colonel Przevalsky, but to a lesser degree. I may here 

 remark that the description of Caccabis sinaica, the pale form of the present species, was not published 

 until after the death of Bonaparte. The name was published in 1856 ; but no description was then 

 given. However, a paper giving diagnoses of the various Red-legged Partridges was placed in the hands 

 of the editor of the ' Journ. fur Orn/ shortly before the death of Prince Bonaparte ; but this was not 

 issued until 1858. 



This, the eastern representative of our European Greek Partridge, is met with in Europe only 

 in the south-eastern countries, but is thence very generally distributed in Asia, in suitable 

 localities, as far east as China. Although Caccabis saxatilis is the Eed-legged Partridge of the 

 mainland of Greece, yet, so far as I can ascertain, the present species only is found on the 

 islands, where it is tolerably common, but does not extend further westward. I am indebted to 

 Mr. C. G. Danford for a series of specimens from Ehodes, and to Lord Lilford for an opportunity 

 of examining the examples collected by him, all of which are certainly referable to the present 

 species. Several of those collected by Lord Lilford have the throat very white, nearly as white as 

 in Caccabis saxatilis, whereas others have the throat yellower and darker than average Indian 

 examples ; but all have the characteristic distribution of the black at the base of the bill, and 

 cannot be separated from true C. chukar. I am indebted to his Lordship for the following note, 

 viz. : — " The very few Partridges seen by me during our stay in Suda bay, in the island of Crete, 

 during the last days of March and the beginning of April 1874, belonged to the yellow-throated 

 race of this species, whilst all those met with in Cyprus, where they are extremely abundant, 

 were the white-throated ; we found them principally in hilly and uncultivated ground amongst a 

 thick growth of juniper and lentiscus, but met with many also in the wheat-fields in the valleys 

 of the north-eastern promontory or Horn of Cyprus." The present species is also numerous in 

 the Ionian islands, being, Lord Lilford states (Ibis, 1860, p. 238), "most abundant in Cephalonia, 

 Santa Maura, Kalamo, Petala, Arkudi, and Meganisi." Dr. Kriiper met with it on the island of 

 Naxos, where, he says, it breeds in the more elevated portions of the mountains ; and Messrs. 



