V PHASIANIDAE 229 
and a black mark down the fore-neck. The members of this 
genus frequent cultivated country, grassy desert-hills, and scrub- 
covered ground, up to sixteen thousand feet ; they are unsuspicious 
in quiet parts, but such is not the case in England. They 
run and fly far and fast, but are exceptionally hard to flush, 
trusting almost entirely to their feet, and occasionally when hard 
pressed resorting to trees. The loud note may be syllabled 
chuk-chuk-chukar-chukar ; the food consists of leaves, fruits, seeds 
and insects; the nest is a scantily-lined excavation, containing 
from seven to fourteen yellowish-white eggs with reddish specks 
or blotches. The pugnacious males are used by the Cypriots to 
attract their wild kindred; but in Britain they have been said 
—probably in error—to drive away the Common Partridge. 
Tetraogallus tibetanus, the Tibetan “Snow-Cock ” or “ Snow- 
Pheasant,” is dark grey above, with buff markings towards the 
wings and rump, and black vermiculations; the under parts 
are white, with a grey pectoral band and black streaks pos- 
teriorly. There is a yellowish naked patch behind the eye, the bill 
is orange, and the feet are red. The sexes are similarly coloured, 
but the male has a pair of strong blunt spurs. The range 
extends from East Turkestan to West China, where 7. henrici 
occurs, with a grey chest. 7. himalayensis, found from the 
Himalayas to the Hindu Kush and the Altai Mountains, has the 
pectoral band and a patch on each side of the head and nape 
chestnut, the chest white with black bars, the orbits, yellow, the 
bill dusky, and the feet orange. 7. caspius, extending from the 
Taurus to Transcaspia and South Persia, has the upper breast 
grey with black spots, and lacks the chestnut on the head; 7° 
caucasicus of the Caucasus has the occiput and nape rufous, and 
the chest black and buff; 7. altaicus of the Altai range has the 
last spotted with white, but no white bases to the secondaries 
as in the two preceding forms. These large active birds haunt 
stony hill-sides above the forest-zone and near the snow-line, 
being gregarious, yet keeping in pairs; they are wild and wary, 
fly straight and swiftly, utter shrill whistles or cackling notes, 
and feed upon insects, buds, roots, grass, moss, and fern. From 
six to nine yellowish or olive eggs with reddish or purplish spots, 
generally one-third larger than those of the Capercaillie, are laid 
in a hollow in the soil, sheltered by a stone or overhanging tuft. 
Tetraophasis obscurus of East Tibet is in both sexes brownish- 
