aid of my dog, I found one nest. It was situated at the foot of a rock, which afforded shelter from the rain ; 

 the hollow was slight and lined with dry grass. This nest contains ten eggs. 



" I made a post-mortem examination of a male in the spring ; the crop contained Triticam repens, a 

 great many blossoms of the ranunculus, and some twenty hymenopterous insects, all of one species. 

 The crop of a male which I killed in the autumn was empty, whilst that of a female contained five 

 blossoms of Taraxacum, a little grass, and some leaves of different sorts. With the exception of the 

 shepherds, no one in the country is acquainted with these birds ; and the native hunter does not care to 

 expend his powder on such insignificant game, preferring to save it for Deer and Ibex, which abound and 

 afford both flesh and leather, and also to destroy the wolves and bears. This bird is, in their eyes, of no 

 more value than a sparrow ; and their astonishment was great indeed at seeing us so earnestly occupied 

 in the pursuit of such game. Notwithstanding this, the bird is known by different names in different 

 districts. The Lerzgines call it Ryezta, the Tonhines Roczo, the Tartars Kara-touch (Black Fowl) or 

 Mesza-touch (Wood-Fowl). 



" Shooting these birds with either pointer or setter is next to impossible in the mountains, where the 

 walking is excessively heavy, and where you cannot always follow the dog, let alone the difficulty of sbooting 

 flying whilst standing in an awkward and not unfrequently a dangerous position. It also often happens that 

 one cannot get within shot of a tree upon which one finds the Grouse ' treed ' and quietly watching the 

 dog as he keeps barking at him. When the bird is thus hunted and ' treed ' by a dog, it always allows 

 the gunner to come within easy range, so as to ensure his killing it. The bird is so little afraid of man 

 that my companion, after shooting the male out of a tree, has also secured the female with which he was 

 in company, she having only flown a few paces further on and perched again, allowing him time to reload 

 whilst she sat there, and he then shot her down. This sport (?) is best in the spring, without a dog ; for 

 one can see the birds at a great distance amongst the herbage, which is neither high nor dense at that 

 season, whereas in the autumn shooting the present species is much more difficult, as it is by no means 

 easy to find the birds amongst the high grass-tufts, which are, moreover, very slippery." 



The male in the accompanying Plate is drawn a little less than the natural size, with a reduced figure of 

 a female in the background. 



