BLACK PARTRIDGE 231 



below Orissa. Nor does it inhabit the hills above 7,000 feet, 

 and to this elevation it only attains via the river valleys. It 

 is also a bird of cover and cultivation, eschewing desert tracts, and 

 affecting especially the sides of rivers where there is a thick 

 growth of grass and tamarisk, as well as thin jungle, even scrub 

 on very dry ground ; away from some sort of sheltering wild 

 vegetation it is not to be found except as a straggler in most 

 cases, though it is willing to haunt sugar-cane fields. 



In spite of its preference for cover, it is essentially a ground- 

 bird, and, though in some localities it may take to a tree to call, it 

 generally, even under the circumstances of delivering its morning 

 message to the world, uses an ant-hill, fence, or rock as a pulpit. 

 The call is harsh and metallic, of about half a dozen syllables, of 

 which various renderings exist both in English and Hindustani, 

 for there is something about the note which impels many people 

 to try and put it into words. Hume says " Be quick, pay your 

 debts " is about the best English version. The call is most heard 

 in breeding-time and winter. 



The black partridge — although it is almost always in pairs, the 

 family coveys only keeping together for a very short time — is very 

 common in some localities, though, alas ! all too readily shot out. 

 It is the best of Indian partridges as a game bird, and with the 

 next species enjoys a somewhat similar status to the grey 

 partridge at home, while if not quite so good as that bird on 

 the table, it is nothing" to grumble at as a game course. It 

 feeds, like the grey partridge, on insects, shoots, and seeds and 

 grain, and is not always to be depended on for scrupulousness in 

 diet when near villages, though not in this or in any way so low- 

 caste a bird as the grey partridge. Blacks are not nearly so 

 quarrelsome, and far less addicted to running, so that they afford 

 really satisfactory sport ; they can be shot, according to the 

 height of the cover, either on foot or from an elephant, and, in 

 Hume's time, at the beginning of the eighties, fifty brace a day 

 might be bagged by one gun, while far higher numbers are on 

 record. 



This valuable bird, however, can be and has been worked for 

 more than it is worth ; although it lays as many as a dozen eggs, 

 it generally fails to raise more than a quarter of such a brood till 



