WILSON'S BLOOD PARTRIDGE 



Ithagenes wilsoni Thayer and Bangs 



NAMES. — Specific: wilsoni, after E. H. Wilson, connected with the expedition on which this species was 

 discovered ; English : Wilson's Blood Partridge. 



Brief Description. — Male : Similar to Geoffrey's Blood Partridge, but about one-third smaller. Female 

 unknown. 



TYPE. — "Washan Mountain, Western Szechuan," Thayer and Bangs, Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard, 

 XL. 1912, p. 139. In Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard. 



RANGE. — Mount Wa, in south-central Szechuan. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



This species is based upon two adult male birds, which were collected in November 

 1908, by an expedition sent out by Harvard University. They were secured at an 

 elevation of nine thousand feet, in the range of mountains known as Washan. 



This is more properly an irregular mountainous elevation culminating in one peak, 

 Mount Wa. This peculiarly shaped mountain has been described by Mr. Baker. 

 " The upper storey of this most imposing mountain is a series of twelve or fourteen 

 precipices rising one above another, each not much less than two hundred feet high, 

 and receding very slightly on all four sides from the one next below it. Every 

 individual precipice is regularly continued all around the four sides. Or it may be 

 considered as a flight of thirteen steps, each one hundred and eighty feet high and 

 thirty feet broad. Or, again, it may be described as thirteen layers of square, or 

 slightly oblong, limestone slabs, one hundred and eighty feet thick and about a mile on 

 each side, piled with careful regularity and exact leveling upon a base eight thousand 

 feet high. Or perhaps it may be compared to a cubic crystal stuck amid a row of 

 irregular gems. Or perhaps it is beyond compare." 



The mountain is heavily forested, and in many places covered with short, scrubby 

 bamboo. It is said to be quite isolated, and is situated in a bend of the Tung River, 

 which, some distance higher up, swings to the northward and passes to the east of 

 Tatsienlu, the most easterly record for Geoffroy's Blood Partridge. In view of the fact 

 that most of the peculiar mammals and birds secured on this same expedition came 

 from the Washan, it seems reasonable to assume that these two dwarf, adult male 

 Blood Partridges actually represent an isolated species. That they are adult is attested 

 by the size of the spurs, of which both individuals have two on each leg, of full adult 

 length. The cere and eye-ring are noted as deep orange red, and the tarsi as coral red. 



When compared with a large series of geoffroyi, there are no colour characters which 

 separate the two forms, but the following measurements show the very considerable 

 difference in size — 



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