GEOFFROY'S BLOOD PARTRIDGE 



Ithagenes geoffroyi Verreaux 



NAMES. — Specific : geoffroyi, named after M. Alfred Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, the eminent French zoologist. 

 English : Geoffroy's or Grey-necked Blood Partridge. French : Francolin Geoffroy. German : Chinesischer 

 Blutfasan. Vernacular: Semo, Tsiri (Tibetan); Tsong-ky (bush-hen, Chinese); Sung Chi-i (spruce-hen, 

 Chinese). 



BRIEF DESCRIPTION. — Male : Bluish-grey above, with white shaft-streaks, edged with black ; wing-coverts 

 intense green ; green below, with grey chin, throat and chest, crimson under tail-coverts. Female : Greyish-brown 

 above and below, mottled below with blackish-brown ; forehead, face, chin and throat brownish. 



TYPE. — Both male and female are from the mountains of Moupin, western Szechuan, China. Verreaux, Bull. 

 Soc. d'Acclim., (2), IV. 1867, p. 706. Both types are in the British Museum. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



The knowledge which we have of the range of this species shows that it inhabits 

 the higher altitudes of the eastern Himalayas of south-eastern Tibet, as well as northern 

 Aborland, western Szechuan, and extreme northern Yunnan. All the record localities 

 may be included in a rather long rectangle between the points 92 and 102 east 

 longitude, and 29 and 31 north latitude. Much of this area is " forbidden land," and not 

 until the fierce tribes dwelling therein have been subjugated can we hope to learn more 

 concerning the exact distribution of this bird. Somewhere in eastern Bhutan, or in the 

 still unexplored Aborland to the eastward, geoffroyi and tibetanus probably meet. 



Although, geographically, the eastern half of the haunts of Geoffroy's Blood 

 Partridge is in Chinese territory, yet the character of the fauna and flora is essentially 

 south Tibetan and Himalayan. The general character of the country at various 

 altitudes, which I observed in northern Yunnan, holds good, according to Ward and 

 others, over much of the western Szechuan region. Here among this maze of 

 mountains, breaking the fall from the Tibetan tableland to the plains of east and south 

 China, a number of great rivers flow almost parallel to one another. They draw their 

 headwaters from that great mountain range of mystery the Kokonor itself, and have cut 

 for themselves deep, wild gorges and canyons through the highlands. The lammer- 

 geier which soars ever so little above the mountain tops, sees, directly beneath, waters 

 which will flow a thousand miles to the east, and in an adjoining valley those which 

 will find their way sixteen hundred miles to the south, into the same warm sea which 

 washes the tropical coasts of Borneo. On the mountains between these rivers lives this 

 Blood Partridge. Here it ranges from about ten to sixteen thousand feet, and, owing to 

 the more broken, irregular character of the country, its haunts are infinitely varied, 

 especially as to flora. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



The altitudinal movements of Geoffroy's Blood Partridge are the result of a 

 search for food, and while on exposed slopes this may necessitate their ascending or 



3° 



