While I was writing the initial post about the grey partridge in New Zealand, I vaguely recalled reading somewhere that sightings of the species had taken place in the North Island long after they had been introduced there (mostly in the 19th century), apart from the one recorded during the 1969-1976 bird distribution survey, and it seems that I've found the source for that text. Uncommon Birds in New Zealand (1975), from the Mobil New Zealand Nature Series, reads:
only recent reports from North Canterbury, Southland, Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay and Taranaki.
The use of the vague term 'recent' is not helpful, but provided that the authors of the book were not misinformed, this brings up a few questions; were the sightings that took place in those three North Island locations of birds that had only been recently released, or of birds that had been persisting since being introduced there in the 19th and early 20th centuries? If they had been recently released, were the releases by people in the North Island who had been breeding them, or were they authorised releases that simply aren't covered in the 2010 OSNZ Checklist? If the releases were by North Island breeders, would them being released be a part of why no grey partridges currently exist in captivity in New Zealand?
None of those questions are ever likely to be answered with certainty. What I can say, though, is that if those 'recent' North Island sightings had been of birds derived from the introductions that took place there before 1940, then this would make Robertson & Heather's field guide stating that the species persisted in Southland into the 1980s reasonable.
That doesn't meant that any exist there now, though.
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