skilful sportsman cannot approach within shot but under cover of mists. It lives in societies of from six to 

 ten individuals, becoming the inseparable companion to the Goat, on the excrement of which it feeds 

 during the winter months. In autumn it grows very fat, and its flesh resembles that of the common 

 Partridge. In the crop of this gallinaceous bird I have found a great quantity of sand and of small stones, 

 mixed with all kinds of seeds of alpine plants." 



Prince Charles Bonaparte informed me,' that there is some reason for believing that this bird occurs 

 within the confines of Europe ; he did not, however, mention the locality in which it has been observed. I 

 had also been told some years ago by an officer of one of Her Majesty's surveying ships employed in the 

 Mediterranean, whose name I cannot recollect, that he had himself observed a bird of this form among 

 the mountains in the island of Candia, where it was excessively rare, and only to be seen on the very peaks 

 of the hills: as this is a point of some interest in the history of the birds of this genus, I would beg to 

 direct the attention of travellers to the subject. 



M. Brandt considers the Chourtka alpina of Motchoulski to be synonymous with this species ; but as I 

 have seen in the Museum of the Jardin des Plants at Paris a bird which I believe to be distinct, not only 

 from the present species, but also from T. Himalayensis, T. Altaicus and T. Tzbetamis, and which nearly 

 accords with M. Motchoulski's description, I have omitted it from the list of synonyms until I have had 

 further opportunities of investigating the subject. 



Crown of the head, neck and the upper surface generally slaty brown, minutely freckled with dark 

 brown; chest nearly uniform blue-grey in the male, variegated with zigzag markings of buff and brown in the 

 female; wing-coverts and scapularies slaty brown freckled with black, margined narrowly on the inner side 

 and broadly on the outer with buff, along which latter mark, on the greater feathers, is a streak of chest- 

 nut ; primaries and secondaries white, largely tipped with blackish brown ; tail dark brown freckled with 

 black, stained in the centre and tipped with brownish red ; feathers of the under surface greyish buff, with 

 a double streak of buff and reddish brown along each margin, forming a series of stripes along the body ; 

 under tail-coverts white ; cheeks and sides of the neck white, separated from the buff-coloured throat by a 

 broad stripe of brown freckled with black ; streak over the eye brownish buff; irides hazel ; bill horn- 

 colour ; legs and feet orange-yellow. 



The figures in the accompanying Plate, taken from life by Mr. Wolf, represent an adult male and a female 

 about three-fourths of the natural size. 



