PARTRIDGES. 409 
the coral-red legs are armed in the male with stout spurs; the tail having fourteen 
feathers. Closely allied to but distinguished by their larger size, differently shaped 
wing, and tail of eighteen feathers, are the two rare species of pheasant-grouse 
(Tetraophasis) from the highlands of Central and Eastern Tibet, and from them 
we pass to the snow-cocks which are the giants among the tribe, and only found at 
great elevations in the mountains of Asia. The Himalayan snow-cock (Tetrogallus 
himalayensis), one of the largest of the six species, and not much inferior to 
the capereaillie in size, ranges through the Western Himalaya to the Hindu- 
Kush, and northwards through the Altai. In the male the feathers of the upper- 
parts are mostly grey, finely mottled and margined with buff, while there is a large 
chestnut patch on each side of the nape, and a band of the same colour surrounds 
the throat, which, together with the chin and eyebrow stripes, is white. The 
breast is white barred with black, and the rest of the under-parts mostly grey, the 
sides and flanks being margined with chestnut and buff The female scarcely differs 
in plumage, but may be distinguished by her smaller size and the absence of the 
blunt spurs of the male. These birds are confined to the snowy ranges above the 
limits of forest, but are driven by the snows of winter to perform one or in some 
places two annual migrations to the middle regions. In summer they are only 
seen near the limits of vegetation, but from June till August, however much the 
sportsman may wander on the highest accessible places of the Gangetic Hills, only 
a few are met with, the majority, no doubt, retiring across the snowy range into 
Chinese Tibet to breed. At the beginning of September they are first seen near 
the top of the higher grassy ridges, and after the first general severe fall of snow 
come down in numbers on some of the bare exposed hills in the forest regions, 
where they remain till the end of March. Gregarious, and often congregating in 
packs, sometimes to the number of twenty or thirty, snow-cocks never enter the 
forests or jungle, avoiding spots where the grass is long. When feeding, they 
walk up hill, picking up tender blades of grass and young shoots of plants, 
occasionally stopping to scratch up bulbous roots, of which they are fond. 
Red-Legged Easily recognised by their transversely barred sides and flanks, 
Partridges. which contrast strongly with the rest of the plumage of the breast 
and under-parts, the red-legged partridges are represented by half a dozen 
species. In these birds the tail is composed of fourteen feathers, and the sexes 
are similar, except that the male is provided with a pair of blunt spurs. In the 
mountains of Southern Europe, ranging from the Pyrenees to the Balkans, the so- 
called Greek partridge is found; but in the Grecian Islands and Cyprus its place 
is taken by the nearly allied chukar (Caccabis chukar), distinguished by having 
the lores or space in front of the eye white instead of black. Its range is extensive, 
extending across Asia to China, and reaching from the sea-level to an elevation of 
sixteen thousand feet ; while the bird apparently flourishes as well in desert-country 
as in cultivated hills. Their surroundings largely affect the chukar both in size and 
colour; the paler-coloured birds from the Persian Gulf differing widely from the 
dark forms found in Cyprus and the Himalaya. The common red-legged or French 
partridge (C. rufa), shown in the woodcut on next page, is a native of South-West 
Europe, and was introduced into England towards the end of the last century. It 
is a handsome bird, the upper-parts being olive-brown shading into chestnut on the 
