The CASPIAN SNOW PARTRIDGE (_Tetraogallus Caspius_), a member of the above group, inhabiting Persia, is dark grey upon the head, nape, and upper breast; the plumage on the back is varied grey and reddish yellow, and the rest of the under side grey, the shafts of the feathers are streaked longitudinally with reddish yellow. Two dark lines pass from the corners of the lower mandible to the breast. These lines divide three white patches, one on the throat, and one on each side of the face. The feathers on the upper wing-covers are shaded with black and reddish yellow, with a broad red edge at their outer web; the quills are pure white, as are the belly and feathers of the lower tail-covers. The eye is dark brown, the beak pale horn-grey, and the foot reddish yellow. The length is about twenty-four inches. This species was first described by Gmelin, in 1788-93, in the thirteenth edition of the "Systema Naturæ." Latham, who places it among the true Partridges, says that it inhabits Astrabad, Ghilan, and other parts of Persia. We are indebted to Mr. Gray, who has made for these birds the separate generic title of _Tetraogallus_, for the following description of their habits, derived from the _St. Petersburg Transactions:_--"This species builds on the highest summits of the rocky mountains of the Caucasus. It prefers altogether the region of snow, which it never quits. Thus, when we desired to acclimatise the young chickens of this Partridge in the plains of Kahetia, they have not survived the spring. It runs on the rocks and the ledges of precipices with great agility, and rises with a great cry at the least danger; so that the most skilful sportsman cannot approach within shot except under cover of mists. It lives in societies of from six to ten, becoming the inseparable companion to the goat, on the excrement of which it feeds during the winter months. In autumn it grows very fat, and its flesh resembles that of the Common Partridge. In the crop of this gallinaceous bird I have found a quantity of sand and small stones, mixed with all kinds of seeds of Alpine plants." The following passage in Layard's "Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon" seems also to refer to this species:--"A covey of large birds sailed with a rapid swoop, with the whistling sound peculiar to the Partridge kind, from an opposite height, and alighted within a few yards of me. They were the _Kabk-i-dered_, or the _Pur-kak-lik_, as they are called by the Turks, a gigantic Partridge, almost the size of a small Turkey, only found in the highest regions of Armenia and Kurdistan." Prince Charles Bonaparte thought that there was some reason for believing that this species exists on the confines of Europe, and a correspondent of Mr. Gould's observed it among the mountains of Candia, where it was excessively rare, and only to be seen on the peaks of the hills.