ORTVGORNIS. 75 



Murray, Hdbk., ZooL, $)-c., Siud, p. 203 ; Hume, Nesls and Eggs Jnd- B. 

 p. 540; Hume, and Marsh., Game Birds pr 4S pi. ; Murray, Avif, Brit. Ind. 

 "• P- 5S3> No. 12 18. — The Seesee Partridge. 



i7/a/^.— Head and cheeks dull grey; forehead, a streak above and below the 

 eye and a border to the ear coverts black; lores, a band behind the eye 

 and ear coverts silky white, rufous behind ; throat greyish white ; breast 

 vinaceous or vinous fawn ; sides of the neck spotted with white ; upper 

 parts isabelline or pale brownish, freckled with dusky ; rump and upper tail 

 coverts like the back, with darker markings ; primaries isabelline on their 

 outer webs, finely pencilled with dusky, and all, except the first, with broad 

 whitish bands or bars ; tail brownish, tinged with chestnut, the tips of the 

 feathers freckled with dark brown ; legs and feet dingy yellow ; irides bright 

 or orange yellow ; bill orange ; cere orange red. 



Length. — 9 to II inches; wing 475 to S75; tail 2*5 . Female slightly 

 smaller, has not the dull grey crown of the male, and in general is more 

 brownish throughout; the black markings on the head are replaced by freckles 

 of dusky or black and white, and the entire upper and lower surface of the 

 body is mottled. 



Hah. — Sind, Punjab, N.-W, Provinces, Beloochistan and Afghanistan, also 

 Persia. Numerous throughout Upper Sind, also in Beloochistan, where in 

 the early morning, especially on broken ground and on the road in the Bolan, 

 as many as two or three hundred may be met with, feeding on the droppings 

 of cattle, or, in its absence, on grass seeds along the hill sides. Breeds in the 

 Punjab, Beloochistan and Afghanistan in April and May, nesting in a slight 

 depression in the ground under some thick bush or jutting rock. Eggs 

 10 — 12 in number, rather lengthened ovals, more or less compressed or 

 pointed towards one end ; in colour from pure white to a pale cafe, an lait. 

 They vary in size from i"3 to i"5 inches in length X O'qS to ri in breadth. 

 It is very fair eating, and superior to the Chukor, though not equal to the 

 Francolin. 



Gen. Ortygornis.— ^6/V/z. 

 96. Ortygornis ponticeriana, Gmei., Syst. Nat. i. p. ; Gray, 



III. Ind. ZooL, pi. 56, fig. 2 ; jferd., B. Ind. iii. p. 569, No. 822 ; Murray, 

 Hhdk., Zool,, ^-c., Sind, p. 203 ; id.. Vert. ZooL, Sind, p, 214 ; Htime, Nests 

 and Eggs, Ind. B. p. 542; Hume and Marsh., Game Birds p. 51, pi. ; 

 Murray, Avif. Brit. Ind. ii. p. 553, No. 12 19. — -The Common Grey 

 Partridge. 



Forehead, over the eyes, lores, nape and face rufous, the face with dusky 

 freckles ; top of the head olive brown ; ear coverts rufescent brown ; back, 

 scapulars and wing coverts dark chestnut, each feather with two or three 

 transverse buffy bars, bordered with black on both sides ; feathers of the rump 



