THE TREE-fARTRlDGKS. 169 



Xr. THE BROWN-BREASTED TREE- PARTRIDGE. ARBORICOLA 

 BRUNNEIPECTUS. 



Arboricola hrunneopectus^ Tickell ; Blyth, J. As. Soc. Beng. xxiv. 



p. 276 (1855); Hume and Marshall, Game Birds of Ind. 



ii. p. 87, pi. (1879); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 



xxii. p. 216 (1893). 

 Adult Male and Female. — Crown brownish-black; forehead, wide 

 eyebrow-stripes, cheeks, and throat buff; a black band com- 

 mencing at the gape, surrounds the eye, and ends in a black 

 patch 0:1 the side of the neck ; upper-parts olive-brown, barred 

 with black; wings marked with pale olive and chestnut, blotched 

 with black ; sides and front of neck spotted with black ; chest 

 brownish-ochre, shading into whitish on the belly; flank-feathers 

 with a large white spot near the extremity^ partially or wholly 

 bordered with black. Total length, 11 inches; wing, 5-6; tail, 

 2-5; tarsus, 17. 



Range. — Evergreen forests of Burma and North Tenasserim ; 

 extending from the Karen and Tonghoo Hills through Eastern 

 Pegu as far south as Tavoy, Tenasserim. 



Habits. — This species is met with from nearly sea-level to an 

 elevation of about 4,500 feet. Mr. Darling, who had many op- 

 portunities of studying its habits in the vicinity of Thoungyah, 

 u-ually found it between the months of September and Novem- 

 ber in coveys of from three to ten or even more birds, "but," he 

 says, "owing to their shyness and dead-leaf colour, they were 

 difficult to secure. They feed amongst the dead leaves on seeds, 

 insects, and small shells, and are very restless, giving a scratch 

 here, a short run and another scratch there, and so on, uttering 

 a soft cooing whistle all the time. AVhen disturbed by a man, 

 they always disappeared into the dense undergrowths ; but a dog 

 always sent them flying into some small tre % whence they would 

 at once begin calling to one another, whistling first low and soft, 

 and going up higher and shriller, till the call was taken up by 

 another bird. I often got quite close to them, but the instant 



