PHASIANIDAE 225 



flight at starting, and their easy gliding motion afterwards. 

 The well-known crowing note is most commonly heard towards 

 evening. The nest, a circular cavity lined with grass, is placed 

 among short herbage, often near a road, the drab-coloured — or, 

 exceptionally, bluish — eggs varying from nine to twenty or 

 more in number. Both parents tend the young and employ 

 many devices to mislead an intruder ; at night the family parties 

 roost upon the ground, and later in the year pack into larger 

 coveys. The methods of sportsmen and poachers cannot be dis- 

 cussed at length in our limited space, but the general adoption 

 of driving, instead of shooting over dogs — due to improved 

 systems of farming — should not be left unnoticed. 



P. daiirica (barbata), of Asia east of the Altai and Tian-shan 

 Ranges, exhibits lanceolate feathers on the sides of the throat, 

 like Coturnix jcvponica, and a l)lack "horse -shoe" mark on the 

 golden-buff breast ; the latter part in P. Jiodgsoniae, of South 

 Tibet and the extreme north of India, being white with wide 

 bars and a large basal patcli of black ; P. sifanica of North- West 

 China and North Tibet lacks the l)lack patch, and has less black 

 on the sides of the head and throat. The two last-named birds 

 reach the snow-line at about eighteen thousand feet ; the first of 

 them at least having a nest and eggs like the Common Part- 

 ridge. Rhizothera loiigirostris, of the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, 

 and Sumatra, has long sharp curved beak and powerful whitish 

 metatarsi, provided with a pair of stout spurs in each sex. The 

 upper plumage is rich Ijrown with black and buff markings ; a grey 

 shade pervades the neck and lower l:)ack, and chestnut tints the 

 cheeks, throat, and wings ; the under parts are grey, merging 

 posteriorly into l)uff. The hen has a chestnut fore-neck, and is 

 less grey above. B. dulitcnsis of Borneo is similar. 



The genus Pternistes contains the naked-throated Ethiopian 

 Francolins. P. nudicollis of South Africa is brown above with 

 black shaft -stripes, the mantle being greyer, the superciliary 

 stripes and face black, the sides of the neck and lo^ver parts 

 black with white streaks. The female has a grey and rufous 

 chest, the male a -pair of sharp spurs. The bare orbits and 

 throat are crimson, the bill and feet orange -red. P. hum- 

 boldti of East Africa and P. afer {rubricollis) of western South 

 Africa resemble the above, but have two pairs of spurs. P. 

 cranchi differs in having the neck, mantle, and under surface 



VOL. IX Q 



