PERDIX BARBATA, J . Verr. Sç O. Des Murs.
Bearded Partridge.
Perdu barbata, J. Verr. & 0 . Des Murs, in Proc. o f Zool. Soc., 1863, pp. 62 and 371, pi. ix—Swinh. ibid.
p. 307.—G. R. Gray, Hand-list of Birds, part ii. p. 267.
Tetrao perdue, var. daurica, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 78.
Per dial sibirica, Pall. Itin., p. 80.
— • §Starna) cinerea, Middendorff, Reise, Vog., p. 209.
— daurica, David, Nouv. Archiv. du Mus. d’Hist. Nat. de Paris, tom. iii. p. 38.
A l l ornithologists and every sportsman will at once perceive that the bird represented in the accompanying
plate typifies, iu Dauria and China, the well-known Grey or Common Partridge of Europe ; but it is not
known to sportsmen generally, or those unversed in the science o f ornithology, that the two birds above
mentioned and the Thibet Partridge, named Perdix Hodgsonice, are the only known species of the genus
Per dix as now restricted. Such, however, is the case; and I may state in a few words that the three species
are each restrieted to a somewhat limited area :—the Common Partridge (Perdix cinerea) being confined,
with a trifling exception, to Central Europe ; the Thibet Partridge (Perdix Hodgsonioe) to the tableland at
the back of the great Himalayan range of mountains ; and the Bearded Partridge, here figured (Perdix
barbata), is found in most, if not all, o f the mountainous parts of the Altai, and thence eastward to the
neighbourhood of Peking and Tientsin, the markets o f which cities are supplied with it as our own are with
the common European bird. There mark that not more than three species are known of the genus Perdix,
is intended for the information of those who do not attend to the minute division of the forms o f birds which
has of late been instituted by ornithologists ; for such persons would naturally say, “ there are many other
Partridges besides these.” True, but not o f the same form— the Red-legs constituting a distinct group by
themselves under the generic title of Caccabis, the little Ammoperdix o f Persia and India another; and there
are still many more forms, which it is not necessary to enumerate here. Each of these presents some one or
more characters not common to the others. For instance, the Caccabes or Red-legs are all spurred, and the
two sexes are alike in colour ; while the true Partridges (genus Perdix) are unspurred, and the sexes are
distinguished by several particulars, the most prominent of which is the presence of a well-defined horse-shoe
like mark on the breast of the males.
Unfortunately I have nothing original to communicate respecting the habits and economy o f the Bearded
Partridge ; for the little that is known respecting it I must therefore be indebted to the pens of others.
In the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society o f London ’ for 1863, MM. Jules Verreaux and O. Des Murs
characterized this species under the name of Perdix barbata, with a description which they say “ was taken
from a fully adult male example obtained in Central Dahuria,” and state that “ the bird is met with in the
environs of the city of Nertschinsk, and in all the mining districts of Nertschinski-zawod. It evinces a
preference for cultivated fields and brushwood ; during winter it descends to meadows near rivulets, and
sometimes approaches the houses. Its voice and flight are similar to those of Perdix cinerea.”
In some notes kindly furnished to me by Mr. Swinhoe, that gentleman says :— “ This bird was minutely
described by Pallas in 1811 as Tetrao perdix, var. daurica ; in his ‘ Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica,’ tome ii.
p. 78, where he states that it is found in the Altai mountains, at Jenisea, and in Dauria ; and that it abounds
in autumn in places among the rocks which are exposed to the sun, and where it passes the winter in coveys,
often hiding under the snow. At p. 80 o f the same work, Pallas refers to this bird under the name o f Perdix
sibirica. Von Schrenck does not mention its occurrence in Amoorland. Middendorff, in his ‘ Reise in den
aussersten Norden und Osten Sibirieus,’ 1851 (Vôgel, p. 209), under Perdix (Starna) cinerea, says, “ It
was only in the Baraba steppe that I stumbled upon a considerable covey of this species.’ Radde, in his
‘Reisen in den Süden von Ost-Sibirien,’ 1863, describes this Partridge as Perdix (Starna) cinerea, var. rupestris
daurica, Pall.
“ In Père Armand David’s Catalogue o f Peking Birds in the * Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d’Histoire
Naturelle de Paris,’ tome iii. p. 38, this bird is stated to be ‘ very common in Mongolia, rarer in our bare
mountains, never on the plains.’
“ The only Partridge I have met with on the hills near Peking,” continues Mr. Swinhoe, “ is Caccabis chukar ;
but sportsmen who have roamed about the Mongolian country beyond the Great Wall have informed me that
they frequently came across coveys of a Partridge which they took to be the ordinary Home Horseshoe.
The Bearded Partridge is brought in numbers in a frozen state to the Peking markets in winter by the