The partridge is a third genus, reckoning in Syria the two species before named, both red legged and furnished with orange and black cres cents on the sides ; but the other markings differ, and the Barbary species is smaller than the Greek. They are inferior in delicacy to the common par tridge, and it is probable that Perdix rule?, and the Caspian partridge, both resembling the former in many particulars, are no strangers in Syria.
The expostulation of David with Saul, where he says, The king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one Both hunt a partridge on the mountains,' is perfectly natural ; for the red-legged partridges are partial to upland brushwood, which is not an uncommon character of the hills and mountains of Palestine ; and the koria sitting on her eggs and not hatching them (Jer. xvii. ii), we take to allude to the liability of the nest being trodden under foot, or robbed by carnivorous ani mals, notwithstanding all the care and interesting manmuvres of the parent birds to save it or the brood ; for this genus is monogamous, nestles on the ground, and both male and female sit and anxi ously watch over the safety of their young.
The name QorP, is, we think, derived from the voice of a bird, and more than one species of bustard is thereby indicated in various tongues to the extremity of Africa and of India ; among which Otis cony and Otis Arabs are so called at this day, although the first-mentioned resides on the plains of Western India, the second in Arabia. We take
both these, however, to be the same species. Cory' is likewise applied in Caffraria to a bustard, which from an indigenous word has been converted by the Dutch into knorhaaft. Notwithstanding the pretended etymology of the word, by which it is made to indicate a long beak, none of the genus, not even Otis Denhami (a large bird of Northern Africa), has it long, it being, in fact, middle-sized in all. Thus it would appear that the type of the name belongs to Otis, and it might be maintained that species of that genus were known to the He brews, by their name wip, kora or koria, were it not for the fact that birds bearing this name were hunted by the Hebrews, which could not well have been the case had they not included other genera ; for bustards, being without a hind toe, were considered unclean, while partridges having it were clean. The gangs or katta, being provided with a small incomplete one, may have offered an instance where the judgment of the priesthood must have decided. We give figures of both Francolinus vulgaris and Pterocles alchata. C.H.S.