6S THE TIBETAN PARTRIDGE. 



available to this day on these points, is that recorded by Mr. 

 Hodgson, the original describer of the species, though Wilson, it 

 is true, does say that he particularly noticed that the naked skin 

 round the eye was large, of a velvety texture, and a rich 

 crimson colour. 



Hodgson says : — 



" The size is as follows : — 



"Tip of bill to tip of tail, 13*0 ; expanse of wing, i8'0; a 

 closed wing, 6' 12 ; bill to gape, 0*87 ; bill to brow, 075 ; tail, 

 4/0 ; tarsi, 175 ; central toe and nail, 1*5 ; weight, lib. 



" Bill, legs and feet horn green ; orbits rather nude, red." 



According to skins, the bird varies from 11 to 13 inches in 

 length ; the wing is from 60 to &6 : in a younger bird only 

 575 ; bill from gape, 075 to 09 ; tail, 3*25 to 4/0 ; tarsi, 1*55 to 

 17. 



Like the European Partridge, both sexes are devoid of spurs. 



The PLATE, though coarse and too highly coloured for the great 

 majority of specimens, is fairly good. I have one very bright 

 specimen, with which the plate would accord well if only 

 the red in it was a little toned down to more of a maroon 

 chestnut. But the majority of birds are much duller coloured 

 and greyer, and, judging from my one just freshly-moulted 

 specimen, the plumage of this species must fade and bleach 

 rapidly. 



The nude crimson eye-space is not adequately depicted in the 

 plate. 



Some ORNITHOLOGISTS separate this species in a distinct genus 

 of its own ; but assuming that it should not be generically 

 divided from our Common English Partridge, we then still have 

 only three known species in the genus. First, the present one ; 

 secondly, our home bird, P. cifierea, extending, except in the 

 extreme north, pretty well all over Europe, though rarer in the 

 south, and through Asia Minor to the western portions of Persia; 

 and, thirdly, the Asiatic representative of this, P. barbata (differ- 

 ing chiefly in its smaller size, longer and more pointed throat 

 feathers, and black, instead of chestnut, horse shoe on the lower 

 breast), which, common in S. E. Siberia, Mongolia and Northern 

 China, extends, in our direction at any rate, to the Kokonor 

 Mountains, and other localities in the north-eastern districts of 

 Chinese Tibet. 



<**fi^^> 



