Tetrao rufus, Lin. Syjl. i. p. 276. 12.— Kratn. el. p. 357. 5.
La Bartavelle, Brif. orn. i. p. 241. 12. pi. 23. f. i.— Buf. oif. ii. p. 420.—
PI. enl. 231.
Perdix Grseca, feu ruffa major, Rail Syn. p. 57. A. 5»
Greek Partridge, or Great Red Partridge, Will. orn. p. 169.
Red Partridge, Albin. p. 27. (the defcriptioa only).
^jpHIS is much bigger than the Common Partridge, and thirteen
inches in length. Bill, eyelids, and irides, red : the
upper part of the head, the neck, bread:, and all the upper parts
of the body, are cinereous, tinged on the back and bread with
rufous: the cheeks, throat, and fore part of the neck, white,
encircled quite round with a collar of black, which begins at the
nodrils, and paffes through the eyes : from the belly to the vent
the colour is yellowifb, but the ddes are beautifully variegated
with orange and black crefcents : the quills are brown; fome
of the outer ones fpotted with rufous on the edge, near the tip,
and the leffer marked with grey: the tail confids of fourteen
cinereous feathers ; the five outer ones have the end half rufous:
the legs are red ; the hind part furnifhed with a blunt knob or
ipur.
This fpecies is found in plenty in the Cyclades iflands in the
Archipelago, in Greece, and efpecially in the ifland of Candia,
though fometimes met with in Italy and the Alps. Thefe frequent
the rocky and mountainous parts, coming downwards in
May to breed j laying their eggs on the bare ground, under fome
done, to the number of fixteen or eighteen, which are white,
fpeckled with fmall numerous red lpots 5 they are reckoned very
good to eat, and the white is faid not to harden in boiling.
GREEK f .
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