FRONTISPIECE, PLATE I 



KUSER'S BLOOD PARTRIDGE 



Ithagenes hiseri Beebe 



In the late afternoon, a small flock was working its way down a mountain slope to some sheltered 

 roosting place at a lower elevation. An unseasonable snowstorm, falling on the tumbled uplands of 

 northern Yunnan, had half covered the Chinese primroses which were blossoming in dense clusters. The 

 dead grass of last year and newly budding dwarf bamboos were visible, and in a hollow some weather- 

 beaten conifers had found a foothold near the upper limit of tree-growth. When darkness fell the Blood 

 Partridges, perched deep in the tangle of a rhododendron thicket, would be safe from foxes and martens. 



