112 CAUCASIAN SNOW PABTBIDGE. 



According to modern views of classification we have now arrived 

 at the second great division of the class Aves. The first division 

 comprises all those birds, the young of which require attention in 

 the nest from their parents, before they arrive at maturity in wing 

 and limb. Hence they are called Heterojjhagi — those the young of 

 which cannot feed themselves. We have gone through this sub-class, 

 and have arrived at the second, or Autophagi — those the young of 

 which can more or less feed themselves from birth. The former 

 sub-class comprises the Raptores, Passeres, Scansores, and Columbidce; 

 the latter the Rasores, Cursores, Orallatores, and Natatores. 



The arrangement is, I think, a good one. It is founded on a 

 great natural division in the plan of development in birds, and which 

 is beautifully adapted to the "circumstances of their existence." 



For this species and four or five others known as "Snow Partridges" 

 or "Snow Pheasants," Dr. Gray has established the genus Tetrao- 

 gallus, signifying that it is intermediate between the Grouse and 

 Pheasant or Partridge. I think, however, that the subject of the 

 present notice might have very well stood at the head of the genus 

 Perdix, leading us from Phasicmus to the Francolins, and thence to 

 the typical Partridges. As, however, it is the rule among ornithol- 

 ogists to group birds of similar structure and habits under a number 

 of different genera, it is not for me to complain. 



The Caucasian Snow Partridge inhabits that neutral ground, half of 

 which is in Europe, and the other in Asia — -the Caucasian Range. 

 As its name implies, it is found there among the wild and desolate 

 mountains which are covered with perpetual snow. It is therefore 

 difficult of access, and we find very little recorded of its habits or 

 nidification. 



The Snow Partridge, living on neutral ground, must of course be 

 classed among those birds more or less common to the continents — 

 Europe and Asia. 



Mr. Gould, in his "Birds of Asia," mentions that he was informed 

 by Prince Charles Bonaparte, that "there were reasons for believing 

 that this bird occurs within the confines of Europe; he did not, how- 

 ever, mention the locality in which it has been observed." 



But surely if the bird is found in the Caucasus, or, as one of its 

 names implies, on the borders of the Caspian, its European locality is 

 sufficiently indicated. Mr. Gould further remarks "I had also been 

 told by an officer of one of Her Majesty's surveying ships employed 

 in the Mediterranean, whose name I cannot recollect, that he himself 

 had observed a bird of this form among the mountains in the island 



