THE TREE-PARTRIDGES. 1 69 



XI. THE BROWN-BREASTED TREE-PARTRIDGE. ARBORICOLA 

 BRUNNEIPECTUS. 



Arboricola bruttneopectus, 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 on the side of the neck ; upper-parts olive-brown, barred 

 with black; wings marked with pale oHve 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, ii 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, 

 usually 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. When disturbed by a man, 

 they always disappeared into the dense undergrowths ; but a dog 

 always sent them flying into some small tree, 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 



