Snow -Partridges . 197 



7000 to 9000 feet elevation, Indian 

 sportsmen, as a rule, never meet with 

 them, except in their summer haunts, at 

 elevations of from 10,000 to even 14,000 

 feet ; and they are so invariably seen in 

 grounds frequented by Tahr and Burrel, 

 that, though one of the very best of 

 Indian birds for the table, they are but 

 rarely shot. 



" It is generally close up under the 

 snow amidst grey crags and hoary pre- 

 cipices, or on tiny plots of stunted herbage, 

 girt round by huge boulders and rugged 

 blocks of rock, amidst which the snow 

 still lies thickly, and at an average eleva- 

 tion of 11,000 feet (at any rate from May 

 to September) that this Ptarmigan-like 

 Partridge is to be found. 



" It is very locally distributed ; you 

 may march for a couple of days, con- 

 tinually passing through or near the most 

 likely spots, and never see or hear a bird ; 

 and again you may see a hundred in a 

 day's march, or one party, or at most two 

 parties, daily for a week. . . . 



" In the spring they are usually in pairs, 

 but it is not uncommon to find a dozen 

 such in a couple of hours' walk. Later 

 they are in coveys of from seven to thirty, 

 old and young, and by the end of 



