2 I 8 GALLIFORMES 



wash on the wing-coverts and rump. The cheeks, throat, and 

 much of the upper and under tail-coverts are crimson, the breast 

 is yellow-green with crimson streaks. /. geoffroyi of East Tibet 

 and West China has a grey head and throat ; /. sinensis of Mon- 

 golia and i^orth China is similar, with rufous for green on the 

 wing-coverts. Females are grey, brown, and Ijuff. Found in 

 flocks of twenty or thirty at altitudes Ijetween ten and fourteen 

 thousand feet, these bold birds have limited powers of flight, 

 great speed of foot, and a weak cackling note ; they bury them- 

 selves occasionally in the snow, as do certain G-rouse (p. 238), 

 and feed on grass,, insects, berries, and shoots of juniper or pine. 



If a Sub -family PercUcinae be admitted, it may l)e com- 

 menced ^ with the little known Oplirysia siqjerciliosa of North- 

 West India, a soft-plumaged greyish-brown species with black 

 and white markings on the head ; next to which comes Gallo- 

 jjerdix, the Spur-Fowl, with a large bare eye-space, and two or 

 three spurs on each foot in the male, reduced to a single pair in 

 the female. G. sjiadicea of India, wliich has been introduced 

 into Madagascar, has a brown crown, and chestnut plumage else- 

 where, with grey margins to the feathers, and black vermicula- 

 tions on the wing-coverts and rump ; the female being mottled 

 with black. G. lunulata, another Indian form, has the crown 

 Ijlack with white streaks, the Ijreast buff with black spots, and 

 black-ringed white ocelli on the mantle ; G. hicalcarata of Ceylon 

 has both mantle and crown black with white stripes, and the 

 Ijreast whiter. These birds frequent thick jungles near the 

 coast, or hills up to seven thousand feet, and are extremely wild, 

 though hard to flush ; they resort to trees in emergencies, and 

 roost in them at night ; the note is a harsh or plaintive whistle ; 

 the food consists of grain, insects, and their larvae. Four, Ave, or 

 even ten whitish or buff eggs are deposited on a few dry leaves 

 below some sheltering shrub. The cocks are stated to fight as 

 viciously as Jungle-Fowl. Bamhusicola fytchii, the Bamboo- 

 Partridge, found from North -East India to China, has the 

 crown and ear-coverts red-brown ; the upper parts olive-brown, 

 varied in places with black and buff, and longitudinally marked 

 with chestnut, except- towards the rump ; the wing- and tail- 

 quills reddish mottled with buff; the superciliary stripe, throat, 



^ Mr. Ogilvie Grant begins with Excalpliatoria. Cf. Cat. Birds Brit. Mas. xxii. 

 1893, pp. 94-95. 



