574 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol XXVIII. 
aii.i on the other hand is found down to about 11,000. In winter it 
keeps below 14,000, and has been found as low as 9,000 feet, though 
its visits to such comparatively low elevations must be very few and 
far between. 
Hume describes the country in which he found them as very bleak 
and bare. He says : 
“ The entire aspect of the hill where these birds were found 
was dreary and desolate to a degree — no grass, no bushes, only 
here and there, fed by the melting snow above, little patches 
and streaks of mossy herbage, on which, I suppose, the birds 
must have been feeding.” 
Colonel F. M. Bailey tells me, however, that the birds do not by 
preference inhabit the more rugged and bare portions of the Gyan- 
tse plain, but are found in places where there are crops, grass or good 
cover in the way of bushes. In these places they afford good sport, 
and bags of some size may be made. Colonel Bailey mentioning two 
days when he obtained 48 and 43 birds in addition to 25 and 34 
hares. Elsewhere he records : 
“ Found in the crops in the Tsangpo Valley from Pea up- 
v/ards. They are found in flocks from 10 to 15. Their flight is 
like that of an English Partridge, but they are not so willing to 
rise though they are not very wild. VTien scattered they call 
each other with a curious buzzing sound. I once heard this 
exactly imitated by the creaking lid of a lunch-basket which 
we had out with us when shooting.” 
Mr. D. Macdonald and others have informed me that when in crops 
or cover, these birds do not run far, but rise fairly close, and give 
good shots, though the coveys bunch very much the first time they get 
up when it is often difficult to avoid “browning” them. After 
re-alighting they often scatter a good deal, and then afford fine single 
and double shots, as they rise oire after another. When on bare 
ground, instead of waiting until the shooter is close up to them, they 
run a great deal, and will often scuttle along in front of one for quite 
a long distance, stopping every now and then when a dip or hollow 
in the ground hides them temporarily from view. 
It is possible that the bird from the western portion of the range 
given above, i.e.. from Ladak, Kashmir, Garhwal, etc., should be 
separated as a geographical race. It is much paler than the Tibetan 
bird, and has little or no bluish tinge above. The broad, rich chest- 
nut collar in that bird is replaced with a narrow yellow-chestnut 
collar in the Western bird, and the under parts also are paler and 
duller with the black more extensive and forming a more definite 
patch. All these variations with the exception of the want of the 
blue-grey tinge above may be due to bleaching and abrasion, and at 
present there is not sufficient material in the British Museum to allow 
of their separation. 
