THE SNOW PARTHIDGE. 
219 
readily introduced into this country. Captain Hutton says 
that it is sometimes sold in the markets of Cabool^ and is a 
common bird on the snowy passes of the Himalaya. They 
^^rise in coveys of from ten to twenty, and usually have a 
sentry perched high on some neighbouring rock, to give 
warning of danger by his loud and musical whistle."^^ Cap- 
tain Boys speaks of it as strong on the wing, and that its 
flights are very protracted. It is chiefly of a grey colour, 
the feathers edged with brown. 
The Caspian Snow Partridge [T, Caspius), ^Keph-e-derra,^ 
or Eoyal Partridge, of Persia, is met with on the highest 
summits of the Caucasus, seldom quitting the regions of 
snow. It runs wdth great agility on the rocks and the ledges 
of precipices, living in societies of from six to ten indivi- 
duals. In autumn it grows fat, and its flesh resembles that 
of the common partridge. It becomes the inseparable 
companion of the goat, on the excrement of which it feeds 
during the winter months. In the Zoological Society^s 
Gardens they had this species alive. 
The most common game-bird of India is the Francolimis 
Ponticerianus, In India it is universally known to sports- 
men as the ^Partridge' ; and indeed, as Colonel Sykes^ tells 
* Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. ii. p. 5. 
