CAUCASIAN SNOW PARTRIDGES. 37 



As we got among the barren stony slopes 

 and beneath the snow peaks, the familiar 

 whistle of the Caucasian snow jiartridge caught 

 the ear from tune to time. These birds are 

 smaller than the snow partridge of Daghestan, 

 and are, so my friend Mr. Seebohm tells me, 

 found only in the Caucasus, for which reason, 

 and because they live only at great heights, 

 but little is known of them and their habits. 

 Had they lived in any other place but the 

 favourite haunts of the mountain goat I might 

 have spent some time in pursuit of them for 

 the pot, and so learnt more of them ; as it was, 

 though they were round me in numbers every 

 early morning which I passed on the peaks, 

 fear of alarming better game kept my fingers 

 off the trigger, and I never killed a single 

 bird. They seem to live wherever the tiir do, 

 in places barren of all vegetation, never show- 

 ing themselves much after dawn, though in 

 that respect their habits are not so marked as 



