
FOREWORD 
Much has been written about the partridges of western 
Europe. They have been described, measured, and weighed. Their 
distribution and abundance have been charted with commendable exact- 
ness. Tales of partridge hunting are legion. Every good cookbook 
tells how to make them melt in your mouth. But only in a few tech- 
nical works can you find reliable information on the life history 
and ecology of European partridges. Only recently have biologists 
become curious about what these birds eat, where they live, and 
what makes their numbers fluctuate from year to year. 
To this general trend the red-legged partridges of Spain, 
England, and France are no exception. In the latter two countries 
somewhat more is known but, of the two subspecies resident in Spain, 
where perhaps 3 million birds are shot in a good year, such informa- 
tion as is available would scarcely fill 3 printed pages. Thus one 
must start virtually from scratch gathering the facts in field and 
laboratory and winnowing the chaff from the stories told by hunter 
and trapper, forester, and farmer. 
The study of the Spanish red-legged partridge is but one 
of several, constantly in progress, covering foreign game species 
that have been suggested for possible trial liberation in the United 
States. Concurrent with it, work with other partridges and francolins 
resident in India and the Middle East and with little-known subspecies 
of pheasants from Afghanistan and Iran has been carried forward. 
Between 1953 and 1957 only 9 months were spent in Spain, and much time 
and effort was of necessity concentrated on trapping and quarantining 
some 1,200 red-legged partridges for trial acclimatization in the 
United States. Thus the data here presented are fragmentary in many 
respects and subject to refinement. Particularly is this true of the 
section on food. No collections of birds in the spring or early © 
summer were made and the facilities needed to identify many of the 
seeds found in the crops of birds collected at other seasons were 
unavailable in Spain. Yet there is keen interest in this species in 
the United States so a compilation of the data currently available 
should not longer be delayed. 
This, the third of these species analyses completed and 
the first to be issued as a Special Scientific Report, deals with 
the Spanish red-legged partridge, Alectoris rufa hispanica, in 
northern Spain and A. r. intercedens from the South. 
Gardiner Bump 
Biologist 
Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife 
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
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