BARBARY PARTRIDGE. 



Perdix petrosa, Lath. 



La Perdrix rouge de Barbarie. 



Although this species is generally known by the appellation of the Barbary Partridge, from its common 

 occurrence on that line of the coast of Africa, nevertheless it is equally frequent in the southern portion of 

 Europe which borders the Mediterranean, and in the islands of that sea ; breeding- abundantly among the 

 rocky mountains of Spain, and in the islands of Majorca and Minorca, in Sardinia, Corsica, Malta, and Sicily. 

 Its occurrence in France is very rare, and then only accidental, nor is it known to visit the more northern 

 parts of Europe. 



In the general character of its plumage, the Perdix petrosa bears a striking resemblance to the two other 

 species of Red-legged Partridge, which are also indigenous to Europe, but may at once be distinguished by 

 the rufous brown collar round the neck, thickly spotted with white points. In habits and manners it is 

 strictly identical with the well-known Guernsey Partridge, in the description of which we have entered more 

 fully into the details of the subject. The female chooses barren places and desert mountains, where among 

 low bushes she deposits her eggs to the number of fifteen, the colour of which is yellowish, thickly dotted 

 with greenish olive spots. Grain, and insects occasionally, form, as is the case with the others of the genus, 

 the food of this species. 



The beak and a bare space round the eyes are red ; the legs, which in the male are furnished with a short 

 blunt spur, are also red ; irides hazel ; a deep chestnut stripe commences at the gape and runs over the top 

 of the head to the back of the neck, where it passes off on each side, forming a collar round the neck studded 

 with white spots ; a broad line above the eyes ; the cheeks and throat are of a dull blueish-ash colour, 

 but the ear-feathers are reddish brown. The whole of the upper surface, with the exception of a few 

 blue feathers edged with red near the shoulders, is of a brownish grey. Breast dull ash-colour ; the sides 

 barred transversely with ferruginous brown and black on a light ground ; each feather barred with grey, black, 

 brown and white, ending in a band of darker ferruginous brown ; the under parts light reddish-brown. Tail 

 chestnut. Length thirteen inches. 



The female differs only in being rather smaller, the collar round the neck somewhat narrower, the general 

 plumage scarcely so bright, and the absence of spurs on the tarsi. 



GREEK PARTRIDGE. 



Perdix saxatilis, Meyer. 

 La Perdrix Bartavelle. 



Of the three species of Red-legged Partridges which inhabit Europe, the present is the most rare. In size 

 and general colouring it is not unlike its allied congeners, which, with one from the Himalaya Mountains, 

 forms a beautiful group, embodying differences, we think, sufficiently marked to warrant its separation into a 

 new genus, distinct from that of which the Common Partridge of our corn-fields is a familiar example. 



The localities of the present species are much more northern than those of the Perdix petrosa. It inhabits 

 the Alps, Tyrol, and Switzerland ; as well as Italy, the Archipelago, and Turkey ; frequenting the higher 

 regions of the mountains during the summer, and descending towards the valleys as winter approaches. 

 M. Temminck informs us that it breeds among the moss and herbage which covers the surface of rocks and 

 large stones, laying fifteen eggs or more, very much resembling those of the preceding species. The beak, 

 the circle round the eyes, and the legs are red ; the tarsi armed with a short blunt spur. Irides hazel ; a black 

 band beginning at the beak passes through the eye down each side of the neck and meets on the chest, inclosing 

 the cheeks and throat, which are white; the top of the head, the back of the neck, and the whole of the upper 

 parts of the body are of a blueish ash colour, the feathers across the shoulder having a vinous tinge ; the 

 breast cinereous ; the sides barred as in the preceding species, — with this difference, that the black bands are 

 not so far apart, and the intervening space is of a delicate fawn colour ; the lower part of the belly is of a 

 yellowish cream colour ; the tail consists of eighteen feathers, of a deep chestnut. 



There is no difference between the sexes, with the exception of the female being smaller in size and destitute 

 of spurs. 



Our Plate represents a male of each of these species, of the natural size, and in the adult plumage. 



