266 ai.i,en's naturalist's library. 



black on the sides only ; chest barred with black and buff ; 

 belly and thighs rufous; upper-parts rufous or brown; no 

 rufous nuchal collar contrasting 7vith the colour of the back. 

 Total length, 5*6 inches; wing, 3'i ; tail, 1*2; tarsus, o"85. 



Adult Female. — Chin and throat (and in very old examples the 

 middle of the chest) black ; no rufous collar round the back 

 of the neck contrasting with the back. General colour above 

 rufous or greyish-brown or any intermediate colour (the colour 

 varying according to the amount of rainfall in the district 

 where the individual occurs, the most rufous forms being 

 found in the more arid localities where the rainfall is small), 

 mottled with black and more or less margined with pale buff. 

 Total length, 67 inches; wing, t,'^ ', tail, 1*2 ; tarsus, 0-95. 



Range. — India and Northern Ceylon ; extending eastward of 

 the Bay of Bengal through Burma and Tenasserim to the 

 Malay Peninsula, Siain, China, Formosa, and the Liu Kiu 

 Islands. 



Habits.— Mr. A. C). Hume writes: — "Scrub jungle, inter- 

 mixed with patches of moderately high grass or dry ground, 

 is perhaps the natural home of this species ; but it may 

 be met with anywhere in low bush jungle and on the skirts 

 of forests, and in inhabited districts it greatly affects 

 gardens, grass preserves, and sinn'lar enclosures. It strays 

 into stubble and low crops in the mornings and evenings, even 

 remaining in these at times throughout the day, but more 

 generally retreating during the hotter noontide hours to the 

 cover of some thorny bush or patch of grass upon their margins. 



" Where the country is very arid, as in most parts of 

 Rajputana and many places in the North-Western Provinces, 

 this species is scarcely seen except during the rainy season; 

 and again, it is almost unknown in densely cultivated and 

 populated tracts where there is no jungle and no long grass. 

 I have invariably seen it singly or in pairs, and only rarely in 

 the latter ; never in parties or bevies of five or six, as Jerdon 

 says. 



