GREEN-LEGGED HILL-PARTRIDGE 2i9 



scattering into the dense underbrush. Tickell, who first 

 described the species, says they cannot be flushed more than 

 once, and when they had settled in the shelter of a bush they 

 would squat till they were within a yard of the muzzle of his 

 gun. He heard them now and then emit a purring note when 

 creeping about in the cover. Except that it is believed to 

 breed in May, nothing is known about the nesting of this 

 species. 



Grccn-lcggcd Hill-Partridge. 



Trop icoperdix ch lurop us . 



The green-legged hill partridge is easily recognized, not only by 

 its green legs, but by the coloration of the flanks, which, instead 

 of being grey with white spots, as is usual in the group, are 

 light reddish brown boldly marked with black. The upper 

 throat is white, but the lower chestnut, speckled with black as 

 in the rufous-throated species, and the breast is really brown like 

 the back, which may easily lead to confusion with the brown- 

 breasted hill-partridge so-called, which often lives in the same 

 district as, though not exactly alongside, this one, and certainly 

 has the breast no browner ; indeed, it is a particularly light, 

 buffy-tinted bird. 



The colour of the back in the present species is brown, with 

 rather fine and close markings of black. It has a remarkable 

 peculiarity in the plumage of the upper flanks, where there is 

 a white downy area, overlaid by the ordinary feathers, and further 

 hidden by the closed wing. The use of this peculiar patch is 

 not known, and it would be worth while to study the bird in life 

 to see if it is displayed at anj^ time, or if, like the down patches 

 on the breast and rump of a heron, it secretes a powdery 

 substance. 



The green-legged hill-partridge is not found in India proper, 

 but is a Cochin Chinese and Burmese bird, occurring, like the 

 brown-breasted species, on the Pegu hills, though not on the 

 western faces of these, and also inhabiting Tenasserim, where 

 indeed it was first obtained. In Pegu, Gates noted, as above 

 observed, that it did not frequent exactly the same localities 



