CAUCASIAN SNOW PARTKIDGE. 
m 
For tins species and four or five others known as 
“Snow Partridges” or “Snow Pheasants,” Dr. Gray has 
established the Genus Tetrao-g alius, 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 Phasianus to the 
Francolins, and thence to the typical Partridges. As, 
however, it is the rule among ornithologists to group 
birds of similar structure and habits under a number 
of difierent genera, it is not for me to complain. 
The Caucasian Snow Partridge inhabits that neutral 
ground, half of Avhich is in Europe, and the other in 
Asia — the Caucasian Pange. As its name implies, it 
is found there among the wild and desolate mountains 
which are covered with perpetual snow. It is there- 
fore 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. 
INIr. Gould in his “Birds of Asia,” mentions that he 
was informed by Prince Charles Bonaiiarte, that “there 
were reasons for believing that this bird occurs within 
the confines of Europe; he did not, however, 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 of Candia, 
2 I 
VOL. III. 
