THE FRANCOLINS. I05 



Dun has been served in that way. Formerly twenty-five 

 brace could be bagged there, but now, if a man flushes five 

 brace in a day, he has done well." 



"All sportsmen who like Black Partridge shooting should 

 kill all vermin they see about its haunts. 



"This bird gets tame readily, and, even when caught full 

 grown, will feed on the day it is caught. It affords some of the 

 finest sport of all small game, and with steady dogs one may 

 have grand shooting. It may be found in all crops, but 

 especially in cotton-fields freshly sown, wheat, rice, and mus- 

 tard, and in wild hemp. It runs a good deal at times, but 

 will lay like a stone if headed ; it is never found far from grass- 

 jungles. 



" Some hens have spurs of the same size and shape as the 

 cocks. 



" It is kept tame by the natives, and used for the capture of 

 wild ones in the breeding-season. The mode of using it is to 

 put it in a cage out near wild ones in the pairing-season, and to 

 set snares round the cage. The tame ones then call up the 

 wild ones; but only cocks are caught in this way, and the 

 tame one must be a young one reared by hand, as, if caught 

 when old, it will not call. 



" Netting is largely used to capture this bird, and on one 

 occasion I wanted some birds to stock a bit of forest, and a 

 man caught two score of birds in a very short time. 



" I never heard of this bird being used for fighting ; it is 

 merely kept as a call-bird or as a pet." 



Nest. — Always well hidden ; often slight, sometimes more 

 substantial, and composed of grass, roots, and dry bamboo, 

 &c. ; placed in a hollow in the ground, at elevations varying 

 from nearly sea-level to 6,000 feet. 



Eggs. — Six to ten in number, bluntly pointed at the smaller 

 end, and varying in colour from uniform greenish stone-colour 

 to rich brownish-buff. Average measurements, 1*56 by i'28 

 inch. 



