THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
General distribution. — The red-legged or French partridge is a native 
of south -w^estern Europe, ranging northwards into Belgium and Switzer- 
land, westwards to north and central Italy, and southwards to Spain and 
Portugal, where a rather darker and more richly coloured form is found 
and has been separated by Seoane as Caccabis hispanica. 
It is found in the Balearic Islands, Elba and Corsica. In Madeira, Gran 
Canaria in the Canary Islands, and in the Azores it has long since been 
introduced by early settlers, and the Iberian origin of the birds is still 
evidenced by their darker coloured plumage. 
Distribution in the British Isles. — ^In England it was first introduced about 
1770, when numbers of eggs were imported from the Continent and 
hatched out under domestic fowls on two estates in Suffolk. Subsequently 
other lots of eggs were brought over, and the species soon established itself 
in East Anglia, and spread westwards along both sides of the Thames 
valley. It has also been introduced into various parts of the Midlands and has 
wandered to Yorkshire and elsewhere, but is most numerous in Lincoln- 
shire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and all the home counties. 
Attempts to introduce the red-legged partridge into Scotland, the Orkneys, 
and Ireland have hitherto proved unsuccessful, but in parts of Wales recent 
attempts appear to have met with some measure of success.* 
Dr N. F. Ticehurst, who has gone very carefully into the early history 
of the red-legged partridge in Kent, is convinced that occasional birds 
or coveys “ wander across ” from the Continent. It may be so ; but 
we agree with Professor Newton and others in thinking that the birds 
which have been observed arriving in Kent and elsewhere in an exhausted 
condition, have probably been driven out to sea by shooting parties on 
some other part of the English coast. 
Allied species. — ^The handsome Barbary partridge {C. petrosa)^ a 
southern representative which inhabits north-west Africa, has been 
introduced from Morocco to the Rock of Gibraltar, and probably also 
to Sardinia, as well as to Tenerife, Gomera and Lanzarote, in the Canary 
Islands, where it is common. It is easily recognized by having the top 
of the head dark chestnut and a wide chestnut collar spotted with white 
bordering the sides and front of the neck. To the East the present species 
is represented by the larger rock red-legged partridge {C. saxatilis)^ 
* In Scotland the red-legged partridge has been met with near Aberdeen, and in Wigtonshire in December, 1892, 
where, according to Sir Herbert Maxwell, some had been previously turned out ; in Morayshire in December, 1891, and 
September, 1892, near Findhorn, where four pairs were liberated by Capt. Brander-Dunbar, and in Forfarshire, Novem- 
ber, 1898. iAnu. Scot. Nat, Hist. 1900, p. 50). — Ed. 
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