HIMALAYAN BLOOD PARTRIDGE 21 



primaries are at last full grown. The tail is clean moulted with the exception of the 

 outermost pair, which clings so tenaciously to its follicles. The upper tail-coverts often 

 show much immature patterning, indicative of their extremely early appearance in the 

 moult. A typical young bird of this age shot in September or October, has the legs 

 and feet pale vermilion ; claws brown ; iris dark brown ; bill black, with the tip, edges, 

 skin and nostrils and the orbital skin light red. Its measurements average: length, 415; 

 wing, 190; tail, 127; bill from nostril, 9; tarsus, 64 mm. The small figures are due 

 to the short growing feathers. 



First Year Plumage. — As I have said before, the amount and intensity of the 

 ventral crimson has nothing to do with age, and the young bird acquiring its first adult 

 plumage in the autumn of the first year may have an abundance or show a complete 

 lack of this colour on the under surface, according to whether it is in Nepal or southern 

 Sikhim. When this moult is complete the male shows usually an excess of dark 

 pigment, noticeable not only in the general darkening of the green, but also in the 

 rectrices, which are in some cases almost wholly dark brown, with rather short crimson 

 fringe. 



The only certain way, however, of detecting a male bird of the year after its autumn 

 moult is by the two or three outer primaries, which, appearing long after their fellows, 

 are not moulted, and may be recognized by their dark or pale brown shaft instead of 

 the white shining rhachis of the other flights. Another character is found in the spurs. 

 These begin to be noticeable from August to November of the first year, during or after 

 the autumn moult, appearing as rounded nodules, much as in the adult female. The 

 total number of spurs make their appearance simultaneously during the first autumn 

 and winter, whether this will prove to be two on each leg, as is usually the case, or, 

 as rarely happens, the extreme of one on one leg and five on the other. 



There is no seasonal change save what is due to wear. One finds traces of the 

 regular autumn moult beginning in adult birdsas early as late July, and in August and 

 September it is in full swing, varying, of course, according to the haunt and 

 temperature. In October the last tail and flight feathers attain their full size, and the 

 thick, soft plumage is ready for the stress of the oncoming Himalayan winter. 



Development of the Female.— The change from the juvenile to the adult 

 plumage in the case of the female is, of course, much less striking than the corresponding 

 change in the male. The first year's teleoptile plumage of the female is characterized 

 by somewhat coarser mottling of the feathers and a greater admixture of buff. I have 

 examined a precocious individual which moulted very early, in which the juvenile broad 

 shaft-stripe and mottling of the ventral plumage was retained, set oflf by the warm buff 

 colour of the adult. The outer primaries are retained throughout the first winter and the 

 following summer as in the male, but the absence of the white rhachis in the teleoptile 

 plumage makes the fact more difficult of observation. Careful examination, however, 

 shows very evident signs of increased wear, and a much duller gloss than in the 

 other primaries. 



Parasites. — Blood Partridges seem never to suffer from an excess of Mallophaga. 



