GALLOPERDIX. f>9 



rocky hills covered with impenetrable thickets. They are found either singly 

 or in pairs, and generally met with in the morning and evening, when they 

 descend to the more open spaces to feed. It breeds in suitable localities in the 

 eastern two-thirds of the Peninsula of India, south of the Neigherries, also in 

 the Shevaroys {Daly), during March, April, and May, making only a slight 

 excavation in the ground for the eggs under the shelter of a boulder or rock 

 in a thicket. The eggs are rather regular ovals, whitish buff in colour, and 

 somewhat more elongated than the typical fowl's ego^. 



87- GallOperdiX zeylonensiS, Gmel., Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat. tom. I . 

 part ii. p. 759 ; Gould, B. Asia, pt. vi. pi. 67 ; B/yi/i, Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. 

 Calc. p. 24 1 ; Murray, Avif. Bril. Ind. ii. p. 548. Perdix bicalcaratus, 

 For St., Ind. Zool. p. 25, pi. 14 ; Penn., Ind. Zool. p. 40, pi. 7. Perdix 

 Zeylonensis, Bonn, et Vieill., Ency. Moth. Orn. i. p. 210. pi. 93, fig. 3. 

 Francolinus Ceylonensis, Less, Traite d'Orn. p. 504. Galloperdix bical- 

 caratus, Hume, Str. F. vii. pp. 430, 453; Hume and Marsh., Game B. 

 pi. — The Ceylon Spur Fowl. 



Male. — Head black, each feather with a white mesial streak, becoming 

 indistinct on the centre of the crown ; back of neck black, with a white 

 mesial streak to the feathers ; shoulders and scapulars deep chestnut, with a 

 mesial black dash, inside of which is a white line ; lower back deep chestnut, 

 freckled with black near the tips ; upper and under tail coverts black ; lesser 

 wing coverts black, bordered with chestnut at base, and with a small buffy 

 spot at tip ; tail purplish black ; feathers of the lower surface black, with a 

 pear-shaped white mark near the tips, becoming lengthened on the abdomen 

 and flanks; bill and orbits red, also the feet ; irides dark brown. 



The female is deep chestnut throughout, paler on the under surface and 

 minutely freckled with brown, especially on the secondaries and upper tail 

 coverts; tail purplish black; bill, orbits and legs red. 



Length, — 14 to 16 inches; wing, 6 to 6*2; tarsus v^ to r65 ; bill 0"8 

 to 0-9. 



H ab .—Cty\ox\., to which Island it is peculiar. Breeds during the S.-W. 

 Monsoon in the Southern Provinces. The nest, according to INIajor Legge, is 

 situated in forest or thick jungle, under the shelter of a rock, or near the 

 projecting root of a large tree. It is a hollow scraped in the ground, Hned 

 with a few leaves. Eggs, 3 — 5 in number, oval, of an uniform cream colour 

 with, in some, white calcareous specklings. In length they vary from 1*42 to 

 r43 inch and in breadth ri2. 



Family .—TETRAONID^ . 



Bill generally short, stout and thick ; wings rounded in most, pointed in a 

 few, longer comparatively than in the Phasianidcc ; tail short ; tarsus short and 

 stout. 



