SYUHHAPTES TIBETANUS 321 



grey or lavender-grey, here and there being one of a rather deeper 

 purple. The eggs have a fair gloss, in one clutch a rather high 

 gloss, and the surface is smooth with a fine, close grain, but the 

 shell is rather fragile for so big an egg. 



Colonel Ward's two eggs have a pale pinkish-brown ground- 

 colour; the spots and blotches being rather larger and darker though 

 less numerous. The eggs vary in size between Via X 1'17 inches 

 ( = 44-4 X 29-7 mm.) and 1-85 X 1'25 (= 470 X 31-7 mm.), but 

 there is little doubt my smaller eggs are abnormally so. 



A third of Captain Leslie's specimens, which I obtained from 

 the Buchanan collection, is different from all the rest. The ground 

 colour is a very pale, dull yellow-stone and the markings consist of 

 small irregular blotches and specks of rich reddish-brown with others 

 underlying them of pale neutral tint. The markings are distributed 

 sparsely all over the surface, rather more profusely, perhaps, over 

 the central portion of the egg, but not enough so to form a distinct 

 zone. This egg measures 49'8 X 33 mm. 



General Habits. — It descends only to about 12,000 feet in the 

 summer, but probably much lower in the winter months. Hume 

 says : — 



" I do not think I have ever met with this species at elevations 

 above 17,000 or below 12,000 feet, but 1 have, of coui-se, only seen 

 it between 1st June and 15fch September and during the colder 

 months it may descend lower." 



" Although it keeps on barren and desolate steppes in the neigh- 

 bourhood often of rocky ranges, I have never seen it (the experience 

 of others seems to be different) on these or on steep hillsides, and 1 

 have always noticed that there was sure to be some water, fresh or 

 brackish, within a reasonable distance of its feeding ground. 



" In the morning and afternoon it moves about on the more or 

 less undulating semi-desert plains feeding on grass and other seeds 

 and berries, and any young green shoots it can find. During the 

 middle of the day it squats about, especially if the day be hot, 

 basking in the sun, very generally scratching for itself a small 

 depression in the soil. 



" Both when feeding and taking its siesta, it is not uncommonly 

 in considerable flocks (I have seen several hundreds together) ; but 

 in summer, at any rate, it is perhaps more common to meet with it 

 in little parties of from three to twenty. Whilst feeding, it trots 

 about more rapidly and easily than its short feather-encased legs 



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