120 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



The Chukor stretches across Asia, Africa, and Europe, from the Chcnab to the 

 Rhone; I have found its nest, at 11,009 feet, in Baltistau, and it ranges through the 

 low hot levels of Mekran and Arabia. It is a very gamey bird, and, if a fair chance 

 were given it, it would certainly thrive on our ghats everywhere. 



The Bengal Florican might also be tried. Game is said to be getting scarcer. 

 Shikarics should try and introduce new blood. 



Again, the Markhor might flourish on the Neilgherries ; it lives at 7 to 9 thousand 

 feet in the rainy Pir Pinjal, and the Neilgherry climate would suit it perfectly. There 

 are several African animals, antelopes and so forth, that would thrive in India, and 

 might be easily introduced. 



Let our Sectional Committees take this suggestion up, if they think it worth acting 

 on. Money would certainly be forthcoming for a well-considered scheme of introducing 

 to the Bombay side animals that would probably thdve there and give good sport to 

 future generations of sportsmen. I look to this, rather than to vexatious game 

 laws, to provide such shikar in the future as has been enjoyed in the past " 



Mr. G W. Vidal said that he had received a letter from Mr. E. C. Ozanno, the 

 Director of Agriculture, in which lie offered to allow the Society to make use of the 

 Government farms at Budgaum, Poona, and Aligaum for experiments in connection 

 with the acclimatization of game birds. Mr. Vidal also pointed out that land suitable 

 for Black Partridges existed in the neighbourhood of Poona, where experiments might 

 be made, such as the large areas round the Powder Works and the Yerrowda Gaol. 

 No doubt Mr. Meakin would also allow similar experiments to be made on the land 

 round his brewery. 



Mr. N. S. Symons addressed the meeting as follows : — 



"With regard to the proposals before us, it would be well to know some facts before 

 we vote money. I will, with your permission, give some facts, many of which will be 

 in favour of Mr. Littledale's proposals, but some against a portion of them. I confine 

 my remarks to the Bombay Presidency and Sind. I will first take the Black Partridge 

 or Common Francolin. Many specimens of this bird have been found in Catch. It 

 was in past years very common in Sind. It is now comparatively scarce there, so 

 Bcarce, indeed, that we need not expect to get any stock from Sind. The destroyers 

 of birds for their feathers have cleared that province of all surplus stock. But anv 

 number of birds, dp to the quantity wo are likely to want, can be obtained from 

 Bengal. The Black Partridge, like all Indian Partridges, is very fond of tamarisk 



jungle, of which there is plenty in this Presidency, and also of high-grass jungle 



particularly if there are wheat fields near. It is not partial to rice food— and so 

 it may be difficult to acclimatize in the Konkan. It is not a runner like the Sad- 

 legged French Partridge, or the Grey Partridge, or the Chukor. It feeds also largely 

 on insects and larva?, grain, and seeds of dry crops, and, like Grouse, also on tender 

 shoots of herbs. They do not, as a rule, hatch more than two or three youu<r ones out 

 of a nest. The average weight of males and females is about 10 oz. 



I now come to the Painted Partridge or Southern Francolin. This is the only 

 Partridge, I bolievo, to be found in the Konkan, or, at any rate, within fifty or sixty 

 miles of Bombay. The malo bird resembles tin- female Black Partridge very closely 

 in plumage, but, curiously, Nature has defined the limits of each variety, ami rarely 



