THE TIBETAN PARTRIDGE. 67 



of the chicks hid themselves under the rock on which I was 

 sitting, and the old bird came near enough to be killed with a 

 stick. It made a great noise, ran remarkably fast, and did not 

 take wing until very hard pressed. The hills in the neighbour- 

 hood were of a rugged and barren character and destitute of 

 forests and brushwood for about 100 miles." 



Major Barnes, the only European, so far as I know, who has 

 ever taken the nest within our limits, wrote to me about it thus : — 



" This is what you may rely on, as I noted the facts at the 

 time. I flushed the bird myself off the nest on the 12th 

 July 1872. The nest was at an observed elevation of 

 16,430 feet. / think (but am not now quite sure) that the nest 

 was a mere indentation in the ground ; it was in grass amongst 

 low dwarf bushes. It contained ten eggs, all perfectly fresh. 

 The pass on which I found the nest leads from the Pangong 

 valley to the Indus valley, and is very high. I did not take 

 the elevation, but estimated it at 19,000 feet, as my camp, after 

 crossing the summit and descending some considerable distance, 

 was pitched that night at 17,745 feet. There was a great deal 

 of snow on the summit, which is perpetual ; the snow-line at 

 that season I should say was about 18,500 feet. The name of 

 the pass is the Oong Lung La. The birds were neither scarce 

 nor plentiful, but there were enough to make the obtaining 

 a specimen, if required, a matter of certainty." 



Of these eggs I have only one. This is in shape a long oval, 

 obtuse at one end and sharply pointed at the other. The shell 

 is hard, compact, and everywhere closely pitted with minute 

 pores, but it is very smooth notwithstanding, and has a very 

 fair amount of gloss. The ground is a pale drab, or clay 

 colour, but the whole of the large end has a faint reddish brown 

 tinge, as has also the extreme point of the smaller end. 



The egg measures 177 in length by 1:2 in breadth. 



Prjevalsky tells us that : — 



" The number of eggs in one clutch is about fifteen, or per- 

 haps even more. At the end of August the young were only 

 about half as large as their parents, which latter were moulting 

 fast at that time. 



" In the beginning of April we re-visited Kansu, and found 

 these birds already paired ; but the females were not sitting 

 even in the beginning of May, although some eggs were 

 deposited." 



For many many years now I have endeavoured to obtain 

 measurements in the flesh and an accurate record of the colours 

 of the soft parts of this species ; but though, thanks to Messrs. 

 Wilson, Mandelli and others, I have received several specimens, 

 these were all collected by natives j and the only exact information 



