882 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



be bold blotches or sometimes thickly sprinkled spots. Average of 

 70 British eggs, 30.34x22.83. Max. : 32.7x23.6 and 29.8X24.5. 

 Min. : 27.9x22 and 29.6x21.2 mm. Breeding -season. — From 

 latter half May through June but fresh eggs have been found in Sep- 

 tember. Incubation. — By female alone. Period variously estimated 

 at 16-21 days from observations in confinement. Single brooded. 



Food. — Mainly vegetable matter, but insects and their larvae also 

 taken as well as small land mollusca. Seeds recorded include corn 

 and seeds of Brassica campestris, Lolium, Polygonum, Chenopodium, 

 Spergula, Plantago, Bumex, Stellaria, Vicia, etc. 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Summer - resident, occasionally 

 staying winter. Formerly much more plentiful, especially Lines, 

 and East Anglia. Now very scarce, but numbers fluctuate. Rare 

 northwards in Great Britain, but has bred as far as Sutherland and 

 Caithness, as well as Orkneys, Shetlands, and O. Hebrides. In 

 Ireland previous to 1850, practically resident and plentiful, now 

 much scarcer and chiefly summer -resident in eastern half. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Europe and Africa north of Sahara, 

 east to west Asia, exact limit eastwards not yet fully known. Partial 

 migrant, wintering in Mediterranean countries, Alrica, and India. 

 Replaced by allied races in Atlantic isles, Africa south of Sahara 

 and east Asia to Japan. 



Genus ALECTORIS Kaup. 



Alectoris Kaup, Skizz. Entw. Gesch. und Nat. Syst. Eur. Thierw., 

 pp. 180, 193 (1829 — Monotype "A. petrosa" =barbara). 



Size about same as Perdix, to which closely allied. Differs 

 from Perdix in colour and number of rec trices, which are 14, and 

 only exceptionally 16 in number ; male with a blunt protuberance 

 in place of a spur, female as a rule without any. Plumage harsher, 

 feathers on sides much wider at tip, those on occiput longer. 3rd to 

 5th primaries almost equal and longest. Sexes alike. Eggs usually 

 spotted. Four species, 3 Palsearctic and 1 ranging into northern 

 India, each with several subspecies ; 4th species south Arabia. 



ALECTORIS RUFA 



493. Alectoris rufa rufa (L.)— THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 



Teteao rtjfus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i, p. 160 (1758 — S. Europe, 



restricted typical locality north Italy). 



Caccabis rufa (Linnseus), Yarrell, in, p. 115 ; Saunders, p. 503. 



Description (Plate 13). — Adult male and female. Winter and 

 summer. — Narrow line of black round base of upper mandible, 

 followed by white line on fore -head which extends over eyes and 

 down sides of neck, fore-part of crown and edging of white super- 

 ciliary stripe blue-grey ; rest of crown brown becoming chestnut- 

 brown on nape and back of neck, but latter with edges of feathers 



