Genus Caccabis 
THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGES 
Tail composed of fourteen feathers ; feathers on leg not below the tarsal joint ; first 
flight feather equal to the sixth, the third being the longest; sides and flanks broadly 
and transversely barred. The sexes are more or less similar, though the males are 
larger, more brilliantly coloured, and ornamented with one or more pairs of blunt spurs. 
THE COMMON RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE 
Caccabis rufa (Linnteus) 
LOCAL Names. — Red-leg, French Partridge, Frenchman ; Petrisen Goesgoch ( Welsh) ; Perdrix rouge 
{French) ; Rothfeldhuhn (Gentian). 
Adult Male and Female. — Greyish olive-brown above; breast, blue-grey; belly, 
rufous buff ; throat, creamy buff; line of feathers over the eye, creamy white shading 
into blue-grey on the upper edge; crown, olive-brown, flushed with blue-grey in front; 
fore-neck surrounded by a band of rich black, extending upwards and forwards to the 
back of the eye — black line from bright red bill to eye ; eye surrounded by naked skin, 
bright red; ear coverts, black and buff; feathers on sides of chest and flanks barred 
with buff, black and deep-red in transverse lines ; feet, deep red. The males are orna- 
mented with two pairs of blunt spurs, joining one another, the upper being smaller and 
less blunt. The male has a total length of 13.6 in. ; wing, 6.2 in. ; tail, 3.7 in. ; tarsus, 
1.7 in.; females are slightly smaller, but I have seen some females as large as males. 
They have no spurs. 
Distribution. — The range of this fine species is South-western Europe. It is found 
in France, Belgium, Switzerland, North and Central Italy, and in such islands as Elba, 
Corsica, the Balearics, Madeira, the Azores, and Grand Canary. East of the Alps and 
the Apennines its place is taken by C. saxatilis, which also occupies Sicily. A closely 
allied species frequents Northern Algeria and Morocco, whilst in Spain C. rufa is 
abundant in parts, and has been named as a sub-species, Caccabis rufa hispanica, by 
Professor Seoane, but scarcely warrants this distinction, as the bird is only a little 
brighter than other European specimens. The species was introduced into England 
about the year 1770, 1 and flourishes throughout the southern and eastern counties. In 
1 Daniel in his Rural Sforts (vol. ii. p. 410) states that they were introduced into Suffolk by the Marquess of Hertford 
about the middle of the eighteenth century. 
Z96 * 
