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 arid 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 T. henrici 

 occurs, with a grey chest. T. Jiimcdayensis, 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. T. 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; T. 

 caucasicus of the Caucasus has the occiput and nape rufous, and 

 the chest black and buff; T. 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 olscurus of East Tibet is in both sexes brownish- 



