112 PHASIANID^. 



Russia. In Asia Minor it appears to be very local, and 

 almost confined to the central portions of the peninsula, 

 Mr. Danford having obtained it near Angora (Ibis, 1880, 

 p. 94) ; but eastward again, Sir Oliver St. John found it 

 generally distributed in the mountainous districts to the 

 north of Tehran. Throughout the southern portion of its 

 range it is, in fact, generally a frequenter of moderately 

 elevated ground not altogether removed from the vicinity of 

 cultivation. From the Altai eastward, in Dauria, Mongolia, 

 and Northern China, it is replaced by a closely allied species, 

 Perdix harhata, the male of which is characterized by its 

 smaller size, golden-buff throat and breast, moustache-like 

 tufts at the base of the lower mandible, and deep black 

 horse-shoe mark on the lower breast. In Thibet and along 

 the Himalayas from the borders of Cashmere to Sikkim is 

 found a third and very handsome species, P. hodgsonia, 

 which, whilst displaying a conspicuous horse- shoe, and 

 having tarsi destitute of spurs, yet approaches the Red- 

 legged group {Gaccalns) in some points of coloration. These 

 three are the only well-defined species of true Perdix as 

 yet known, and the genus appears to be confined to the 

 temperate portions of the Palrearctic region. 



The adult male has the beak bluish-white ; the irides 

 hazel ; behind the eye, and above the ear-coverts, a small 

 triangular patch of naked red skin ; the forehead, the space 

 between the beak and the eye, with the feathers extending 

 backwards as far as the ear-coverts, and downwards covering 

 the front of the neck and throat, bright yellowish-chestnut ; 

 top of the head, hind neck, and upper back, freckled greyish- 

 brown ; lower back and wing-coverts freckled with two 

 shades of chestnut-brown on a ground of wood-brown, the 

 shaft of each feather forming a conspicuous streak of pale 

 wood-brown ; the quill-feathers brown, with transverse bars 

 of wood-brown ; the rump and upper tail-coverts, some of 

 which are long, freckled with two shades of brown, and 

 barred transversely with chestnut; tail-feathers eighteen 

 in number : the two middle ones marked like the coverts, 

 the next pair with chestnut centres and mottled edges, and 



