bird having been kept in confinement, for this character was not particularly conspicuous in the specimen
I have figured from?
“ I shot this fine bird,” says Lieut. Smith, “ near the Pangong Lake in Little Thibet. It is a male, and
the only one of the species I have ever met with; therefore I can tell you but little of its habits. I found it
with its covey of young ones, which were just out o f the shells. Some of the latter hid themselves under
the rock on which I was sitting, and the old bird came near enough to be killed with a stick. It made a
great noise, ran remarkably fast, and did not take wing until very hard pressed. The hills in the neighbourhood
of which it was discovered, were o f a rugged and barren character, and destitute of forests or
brushwood for about a hundred miles. I noticed that the hen bird was grey, but did not shoot her on
account of the young ones.
“ I shot my bird about one hundred miles north-east o f the capital of Ladak, in a part o f the country which
is very thinly inhabited. I had never heard of its existence before, and the Thibetans with me seemed as
much surprised on seeing the bird as myself.
“ This new species must be very scarce, for although I had been twice previously on shooting excursions
in the same country, I did not meet with it on either occasion; and although on the present I remained for
six weeks in the vicinity, I did not even see a second example 5 I regret therefore that I did not also secure
the female.”
Band across the forehead, stripe over each eye to the nape, sides of the neck and throat buffy-white; the
band on the forehead bounded before and behind with a narrow line o f black; feathers o f the lores and
ear-coverts buffy-white bordered with black; eyelash and a bare space behind the eye red, below the latter
a broad semi-crescentic mark of black; crown of- the head dark rust-red; occiput and nape mottled-buff
and dark brown; back and sides of the neck rust-red, separated from the white o f the throat by a line
of black; feathers of- the upper surface alternately barred with buff and reddish-brown; wing-coverts
similar, but the bands not so regular, and with a stripe of light buff in the direction o f the shaft;
wing-feathers brown, crossed by irregular bars of buff; central tail-feathers pale greyish-buff, crossed
by irregular bands of brown, and the grey portion freckled with brown; lateral feathers rust-red, the
inner webs of those nearest the central ones irregularly barred with brown; feathers of the under
surface buff, those o f the centre of the breast with a crescent o f black at the extremity o f each, which
increasing in size forms a large horse-shoe-shaped patch on the centre of the abdomen; the flank feathers,
in like manner, have a broad crescent of deep rusty-red at the tip of each, and a narrow line o f buff down
the shaft; vent, thighs, and under tail-coverts greyish-buff, without markings of any kind; bill and feet olive.
Total length, lliin c h e s ; bill, from gape, i ; wing, 6i ; tail, 4 ; tarsi, 1-f-.
The figures are of the natural size.