Editing Red-legged partridge (section)

== Taxonomy ==
The red-legged partridge was [[Species description|formally described]] in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist [[Carl Linnaeus]] in the [[10th edition of Systema Naturae|tenth edition]] of his ''[[Systema Naturae]]'' under the [[binomial nomenclature|binomial name]] ''Tetrao rufus''. Linnaeus designated the [[type locality (biology)|type locality]] as southern Europe but this is now restricted to northern Italy.<ref>{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1758 | title= Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | volume=1 | edition=10th | page=160 |  publisher=Laurentii Salvii | location=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=Latin | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727067 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | editor-last=Peters | editor-first=James Lee | editor-link=James L. Peters | year=1934 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=2 | publisher=Harvard University Press | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts  | page=66 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14482879 }}</ref> The specific epithet is [[Latin]] meaning "red" or "rufous".<ref>{{ cite web | last=Jobling | first=James A. | title=rufus | work=The Key to Scientific Names | url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/key-to-scientific-names/search?q=rufus | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | access-date=18 February 2025 }}</ref> The red-legged partridge is now one of seven partridge species placed in the [[genus]] ''[[Alectoris ]]'' that was introduced in 1829 by German naturalist [[Johann Jakob Kaup]].<ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela C. Rasmussen | date=August 2024 | title=Pheasants, partridges, francolins | work=IOC World Bird List Version 14.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/bow/pheasants/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=19 February 2025}}</ref>

Three [[subspecies]] are recognised:<ref name=ioc/>
* ''A. r. rufa'' ([[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]], 1758) – Britain, France, north Italy and [[Corsica]]
* ''A. r. hispanica'' (Seoane, 1894) – north, west [[Iberian Peninsula]]
* ''A. r. intercedens'' ([[Alfred Brehm|Brehm, AE]], 1857) – east, south [[Iberian Peninsula]]