2 THE SNOW PARTRIDGE. 



first two or three of the more elevated snow-capped ranges. 

 Snow seems to be a necessity to them ; and,though a few do occur, 

 as I have myself seen, in Southern Spiti, broadly speaking you 

 miss them the moment that, crossing the outer snowy chains, 

 you reach the more arid, comparatively rainless, regions of 

 Lahul, Ladakh, and Thibet. 



The Karakorum knows them not ; neither Turkestan nor 

 Mongolia — all these regions are too arid for them ; nor do they 

 appear to extend westward into the apparently more suitable 

 mountains of Northern Persia; but Pere David himself killed 

 some in the snowy ranges of Moupin at an elevation of between 

 11,000 and 12,000 feet. Now Moupin (not marked on any but 

 the most recent maps) is due east of Ching-too, on the borders 

 of China and Chinese Thibet, and in about the same latitude 

 as Simla ; and there is good reason to suspect that east of 

 Sikhim the Snow Partridge extends right along the higher hills 

 of Bhutan, and of the tribes due north of the entire valley 

 of Assam, to Moupin, which is only distant between 300 and 

 400 miles in a north-easterly direction from our easternmost 

 outpost 



It is probable that from Moupin this species runs northwards 

 along the Ta-sue-chan, or Great Snowy Mountains, to near the 

 borders of Kansu. 



Although in severe winters, and after heavy falls of snow, 

 crowds of Snow Partridges may be met with at from 7,000 to 

 9,000 feet elevation, Indian sportsmen, as a rule, never meet with 

 them, except in their summer haunts, at elevations of from 

 10,000 to even 14,000 feet ; and they are so invariably seen in 

 grounds frequented by Tahr and Burrel, that, though one of the 

 very best of Indian birds for the table, they are but rarely 

 shot. 



It is generally close up under the snow, amidst grey crags 

 and hoary precipices, or on tiny plots of stunted herbage, girt 

 round by huge boulders and rugged blocks of rock, amidst 

 which the snow still lies thickly, and at an average elevation of 

 1 1,000 feet Cat any rate from May to September), that this 

 Ptarmigan-like Partridge is to be found. 



It is very locally distributed ; you may march for a couple 

 of days, continually passing through or near the most likely spots, 

 and never see or hear a bird ; and again you may see a hun- 

 dred in a day's march, or one party, or at most two parties, daily 

 for a week. 



Like many others of our game birds, they are (where not 

 worried) tame enough where they are numerous (as if they 

 realized that a few more or less would not endanger the con- 

 tinuance of the race), while, where scarce, they are apt to be shy 

 and wary. Along routes frequented by sportsmen, and after 

 they have been shot at for several successive days, I have found 



