skilful sportsman cannot approach within shot but under cover of mists. It lives in societies of from six to
ten individuals, becoming the inseparable companion to the Goat, on the excrement of which it feeds
during the winter months. In autumn it grows very fat, and its flesh resembles that of the common
Partridge. In the crop of this gallinaceous bird I have found a great quantity of sand and o f small stones,
mixed with all kinds of seeds of alpine plants.”
Prince Charles Bonaparte informed me, that there is some reason for believing that this bird occurs
within the confines of Europe; he did not, however, mention the locality in which it has been observed. I
had also been told some years ago“ by an officer of one of Her Majesty’s surveying ships employed in the
Mediterranean, whose name I cannot recollect, that he had himself observed a bird of this form among
the mountains in the island of Candia, where it was excessively rare, and only to be seen 011 the very peaks
of the h ills: as this is a point of some interest in the history of the birds of this genus, I would be»- to
direct the attention of travellers to the subject.
M. Brandt considers the Chourtka alpina of Motchoulski to be synonymous with this species ; but as I
have seen in the Museum of the Jardin des Plants at Paris a bird which I believe to be distinct, not only
from the present species, but also from T. Himalayensis, T. Altaicus and T. Tibet anus, and which nearly
accords with M. Motchoulski’s description, I have omitted it from the list of synonyms until I have had
further opportunities of investigating the subject.
Crown of the head, neck and the upper surface generally slaty brown, minutely freckled with dark
brown; chest nearly uniform blue-grey in the male, variegated with zigzag markings of buff and brown in the
female; wing-coverts and scapularies slaty brown freckled with black, margined narrowly on the inner side
and broadly on the outer with buff, along which latter mark, on the greater feathers, is a streak of chestn
u t; primaries and secondaries white, largely tipped with blackish brown; tail dark brown freckled with
black, stained in the centre and tipped with brownish r e d ; feathers of the under surface greyish buff, with
a double streak of buff and reddish brown along each margin, forming a series of stripes along the body;
under tail-coverts white; cheeks and sides of the neck white, separated from the buff-coloured throat by a
broad stripe of brown freckled with black; streak over the eye brownish buff; irides hazel; bill horn-
colour ; legs and feet orange-yellow.
The figures in the accompanying Plate, taken from life by Mr. Wolf, represent an adult male and a female
about three-fourths of the natural size.