29 
Ornithology of Asia Minor. 
singular^ as it is recorded by TcbihatchefF* and other observers 
as common in certain places, and is mentioned by Major 
St. John as being found all over Andarbigan in the north of 
Persia f. 
I have further been assured by Mr. Wilkin, the English 
consul at Adalia, that he has shot plenty of the common 
English Partridge near Isbarta, in the lake-district. 
I may take this opportunity of remarking that it is ex¬ 
tremely improbable that the specimen of Lagopus in the 
British Museum could have come from such a locality as the 
isolated mountain of Argseus, near Kaisariyeh. The Turkish 
name Quisel simply means pretty,^'’ and was very pro¬ 
bably applied to the bird, but only as an adjective. To re¬ 
peated inquiries as to the existence of a white Partridge in 
the Taurus, negative answers were always received, excepting 
in one instance, and this may, if it existed, have been an 
albino of C. chukar. 
166. Tetraogallus caspius, Gm.J Vr keklik. 
Tetraogallus tauricus, Dresser, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 675. 
The range of this species, though already known to be pretty 
wide, is not yet fully determined. Its probable western limits 
are the Gok, or Geyee, Mountains of Southern Asia Minor §. 
Thence it extends eastward through the rest of the Taurus 
into Armenia, Kurdistan, and Northern Persia, as far as the 
south-east corner of the Caspian||. It is also reported to 
occur in the Dinar Mountains, in the south-west of Persia^. 
Though by no means uncommon in the rocky ranges of 
Cilicia, the Snow-Partridge is, owing to its extreme wariness, 
and the difficult character of the ground it frequents, a very 
hard bird to obtain. So shy is it that the natives say it 
takes the wind of a man like an ibex. The coveys in sum¬ 
mer time are doubtless more easy of approach than the adult 
birds. 
This species frequents in winter the regions just above the 
^ Tcliihatcheff, vol. ii. p. 764. t Eastern Persia, vol. ii. p. 273. 
% See letter in Ibis, 1877, p. 253. § Kotschy, Oil. Taur. p. 95. 
II Layard, Desc. Ruins Nineveh and Babylon. 
^ Blanford, Eastern Persia, vol. ii. p. 277. 
