268 THE HIMALAYAN SNOW-COCK. 



In Northern Persia, a distinct species is found in the Elburz, 

 but the Persians say that a second species is found in the 

 lofty Dinar mountains in the south, just north of Shiraz, and 

 it is not impossible that this may be Iiimalayensis. 



BARE ROCKY hill sides, ravines and passes in the higher snowy 

 ranges, and elevated broken stony ground, at elevations of 

 from 1 1,000 to 18,000 feet, and mostly on the northern sides 

 of the first snowy ranges are the places to which, in summer and 

 early autumn, this species resorts. In the winter they come 

 in much greater numbers south of these ranges, and may be met 

 with, my collectors tell me, after heavy snow as low as 7,000 

 and 8,000 feet in the valleys of the Beds and Sutlej. 



In the northern portions of Kumaun and British Gharwal, 

 about the sources of the Ganges and Jumna, the Sutlej valley 

 above the junction of the Buspa, all along the southern side 

 of the Baralatsi Range, above Samgam, and towards the Mani- 

 rang-la, in Spiti, Northern Kulu and the range through which 

 the Rohtung runs, and so on in all the higher ranges inside 

 the first snowy range westwards to Hazara, they are said to be 

 common, by different authorities and sportsmen whom I have 

 consulted, but nowhere have I myself seen them in anything 

 like the numbers in which I found them on the Parang-la route 

 from the Tso-mourari, across Spiti to the Babba Pass. Baldwin 

 says that he once saw upwards of fifty together below the 

 Niti Pass, and I am sure that in one morning's march along 

 the Parang-la I saw two hundred, in parties of from ten to 

 twenty. 



With a gun they do not, as a rule, afford any sport ; when 

 feeding they always have a watch-bird, perched erect on some 

 projecting stone, who is scarcely to be hoodwinked, and who 

 at any rate, when you get within 80 or 90 yards, gives the 

 alarm and raises the whole covey. You may get them driven 

 over you nicely at times, and you might sometimes stalk them, 

 if it were worth the tremendous labour such stalks usually 

 involve in the places they frequent, and occasionally by walk- 

 ing up to them from below, forming a line of eight or ten men 

 covering three hundred yards or so in length, where the ground 

 will permit it, one out of two or three guns may get a fair over- 

 head shot ; but as a rule, wherever I have seen them, the 

 rifle is the only weapon with which a bag can be made. I have 

 heard of their being met with so tame that they did not rise 

 till approached within 30 yards, but I personally have found 

 that 100 yards was about as near as they would ever let you 

 approach, and then, if with a small bore single rifle you cannot 

 secure the sentinel, it is your own fault. It is capital practice, 

 and in the clear crisp mountain air, surrounded by superb 

 scenery might tempt any man to pursue it as regular sport, 



