PERDIX B AREATA, J. Verr. <fr O. Des Murs. 



Partridge. 



Perdix barbata, J. Verr. & O. Des Murs, in Proc. of Zool. Soc, 1863, pp. 62 and 371, pi. ix.— Swinh. ibid. 



p. 307.— G. R. Gray, Hand-list of Birds, part ii. p. 267. 

 Tetrao perdix, var. daurica, Pall. Zoog\ Rosso-Asiat., torn. ii. p. 78. 

 Perdix sibirica, Pall. Itin., p. 80. 



(Starna) cinerea, Middendorff, Reise, Vog., p. 209. 



daurica, David, Nouv. Arcliiv. du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. de Paris, torn. iii. p. 38. 



All ornithologists and every sportsman will at once perceive that the bird represented in the accompanying 

 plate typifies, in Danria and China, the well-known Grey or Common Partridge of Europe ; but it is not 

 known to sportsmen generally, or those unversed in the science of ornithology, that the two birds above 

 mentioned and the Thibet Partridge, named Perdix Hodgsonice, are the only known species of the genus 

 Perdix as now restricted. Such, however, is the case; and I may state in a few words that the three species 

 are each restricted to a somewhat limited area : — the Common Partridge (Perdix cinerea) being confined, 

 with a trifling exception, to Central Europe ; the Thibet Partridge (Perdix Hodgsonice) to the tableland at 

 the back of the great Himalayan range of mountains ; and the Bearded Partridge, here figured (Perdix 

 barbata), is found in most, if not all, of the mountainous parts of the Altai, and thence eastward to the 

 neighbourhood of Peking and Tientsin, the markets of which cities are supplied with it as our own are with 

 the common European bird. There mark that not more than three species are known of the genus Perdix, 

 is intended for the information of those who do not attend to the minute division of the forms of birds which 

 has of late been instituted by ornithologists; for such persons would naturally say, "there are many other 

 Partridges besides these." True, but not of the same form — the Red-legs constituting a distinct group by 

 themselves under the generic title of Caccabis, the little Ammoperdix of Persia and India another; and there 

 are still many more forms, which it is not necessary to enumerate here. Each of these presents some one or 

 more characters not common to the others. For instance, the Caccabes or Red-legs are all spurred, and the 

 two sexes are alike in colour ; while the true Partridges (genus Perdix) are unspurred, and the sexes are 

 distinguished by several particulars, the most prominent of which is the presence of a well-defined horse-shoe 

 like mark on the breast of the males. 



Unfortunately I have nothing original to communicate respecting the habits and economy of the Bearded 

 Partridge ; for the little that is known respecting it I must therefore be indebted to the pens of others. 



In the * Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London ' for 1863, MM. Jules Verreaux and O. Des Murs 

 characterized this species under the name of Perdix barbata, with a description which they say " was taken 

 from a fully adult male example obtained in Central Dahuria," and state that "the bird is met with in the 

 environs of the city of Nertschinsk, and in all the mining districts of Nertschinski-zawod. It evinces a 

 preference for cultivated fields and brushwood ; during winter it descends to meadows near rivulets, and 

 sometimes approaches the houses. Its voice and flight are similar to those of Perdix cifierea." 



In some notes kindly furnished to me by Mr. Swinhoe, that gentleman says : — ."This bird was minutely 

 described by Pallas in 1811 as Tetrao perdix, var. daurica ; in his ' Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica,' tome ii. 

 p. 78, where he states that it is found in the Altai mountains, at Jenisea, and in Dauria ; and that it abounds 

 in autumn in places among the rocks which are exposed to the sun, and where it passes the winter in coveys, 

 often hiding under the snow. At p. 80 of the same work, Pallas refers to this bird under the name of Perdix 

 sibirica. Von Schrenck does not mention its occurrence in Amoorland. Middendorff, in his ' Reise in den 

 aussersten Norden mid Osten Sibiriens,' 1851 (Vogel, p. 209), under Perdix (Starna) cinerea, says, "It 

 was only in the Baraba steppe that I stumbled upon a considerable covey of this species.' Radde, in his 

 'Reisen in den Suden von Ost-Sibirien,' 1883, describes this Partridge as Perdix (Starna) cinerea, var. rupestris 

 daurica, Pall. 



" In Pere Armand David's Catalogue of Peking Birds in the * Nouvelles Archives du Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle de Paris,' tome iii. p. 38, this bird is stated to be ' very common in Mongolia, rarer in our bare 

 mountains, never on the plains.' 



" The only Partridge I have met with on the hills near Peking," continues Mr. Swinhoe, " is Caccabis chukar ; ■ 

 but sportsmen who have roamed about the Mongolian country beyond the Great Wall have informed me that 

 they frequently came across coveys of a Partridge which they took to be the ordinary Home Horseshoe. 

 The Bearded Partridge is brought in numbers in a frozen state to the Peking markets in winter by the 



