THE LESGHIAN MOUNTAINS. 285 



Lesghians call the mountain turkey were busily 

 feeding, and vigorously whistling as they fed. 

 Tame as they were, I found that shooting them 

 in that dim light with an 'express' rifle was no easy 

 work, and the only one I killed fell in a crevasse, 

 in which we were obliged, hungry though we were, 

 to leave him. Had I tried when I first left the 

 hut I might have easily killed several, as they 

 would let me approach within a dozen yards of 

 them, so tame were they. But at that early hour 

 we had hopes that along some one of the well- 

 beaten tracks near the hut we might see tur or 

 wild goat descending to the pastures below ; and 

 with this possibility in view we let the turkeys 

 alone until the coming dawn had made them com- 

 paratively wild. 



Before dawn we saw some birds which the 

 mountaineers call black pheasants birds with a 

 flight and shape in every way justifying their 

 name. These, as well as the turkeys, disappeared 

 as if by magic at dawn. The peaks, which had 

 been loud with their calls and alive with their 

 bustling forms half an hour ago, were now still as 

 if they had never known them, and but for their 

 tracks upon the snow, one might have fancied they 

 were mere nightmares which the daylight had 

 dispersed. The cause of their sudden disappear- 

 ance Allai pointed out to me in the forms of two 

 broad-winged lammenreiers that came with the 



