234 INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



excellence among our lowland small game. They feed on the 

 same sort of food as black partridges, and, like them, are not 

 beyond suspicion if shot near villages ; they also go in pairs — the 

 coveys in this case too not keeping together long — and are not 

 quarrelsome. The eggs of this bird are most often laid in August, 

 and are deposited in similar places to those of the northern bird, 

 and about as hard to find ; but they are smaller in size, duller in 

 surface and fewer in number. In colour they are some shade 

 of cream or drab, without spots. The young have a " peculiar 

 cricket-like chirrup " which they begin as soon as they are 

 hatched. This species is pretty uniform in size, and only weighs 

 from about eight and a half to twelve and a half ounces, never 

 approaching some blacks. 



Eastern or Burmese Francolin. 



Francolinus chinensis* Kha, Burmese. 



This third member of this beautiful spotted group of 

 partridges is to a certain extent intermediate between the two 

 Indian species; though not so large as the northern bird it is 

 bigger than the southern, and the cock has more black in his 

 under-surface colouring than the latter, and also possesses spurs. 

 He has no chestnut collar, however, and in his head-colouring 

 he is very distinct from either, and perhaps even handsomer ; for 

 the face and throat are white with a bridle-like cheek-stripe of 

 black. This marking is repeated on the head of the hen in buff 

 and brown, otherwise she is very like the hen of the southern 

 francolin or painted partridge. 



The Burmese francolin is not generally distributed over 

 Burma, but only in the Thoungyen and Irrawaddy valleys 

 and in Karermee and Tonghoo. In Karennee and down the 

 Irrawaddy to Prome it is a common bird, and being a noisy 

 one, especially in the breeding season, June and July, its 

 presence is obvious enough. The call is of the same character 

 as that of black partridge, but has a style of its own, and is 



*phayrii on plate. 



