Ornithological and Other Oddities 



as big as a fowl's, and a cry which is a strangely 

 mellow rendering of the peewit's. Above them 

 in the conifer zone lives the blood-pheasant, 

 flavouring himself horribly on an aromatic diet 

 of pine and juniper, and, where the forest dis- 

 appears and leaves a stretch of grass running 

 upwards to the eternal snows, the great ram- 

 chukor or snow-cock, a partridge as big as a 

 small goose, grazes on the turf or scratches for 

 bulbs, with one wary eye on the soaring eagle, 

 whose frequent attempts to capture him sitting 

 give interest to a life at these stupendous heights. 

 And he is not the only high-level dweller, for 

 where the scanty moss and lichens half hide the 

 rocks of the snow-line, a beautifully-pencilled 

 bird, the ptarmigan-like snow-partridge, picks 

 up a scanty living and waxes fat and savoury 

 in an arctic environment. 



There are no true grouse on these Himalayan 

 heights, these grouse-like pheasants and par- 

 tridges taking their place, just as trout-like carp 

 take the place of real trout in the mountain 

 streams ; but on the plains the curious sand- 

 grouse live and in some cases breed, hatching 

 their eggs on the arid soil under a sun so fierce 

 that the said eggs literally begin to cook if 

 the bird is scared off them for any time. Of 

 quails and partridges there is no need to speak ; 



India has its full share of them, and the natives 



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