1 86 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



This pretty Partridge is an inhabitant 

 of barren and rocky ground up to a level 

 of about 7000 feet. Mr. Hume thus refers 

 to its habits : — " They are eminently 

 birds of bare broken ground ; on grassy 

 slopes they may indeed be found, for 

 they feed much on grass seeds, but they 

 eschew utterly forests or thickly wooded 

 tracts, and even where there is much 

 scrub about they are less common, — the 

 barer and more desolate the ravines and 

 gorges, the more thoroughly do they 

 seem at home. 



" They are active, bustling little birds, 

 scratching about a great deal in the earth, 

 dusting themselves freely in the sand, 

 basking in the sun, resting in little hollows 

 they have worked out for themselves, and 

 generally reproducing in many ways the 

 manners of the domestic fowl. 



" Their call, continually heard in the 

 spring, is a clear double note, 'Soo-see, 

 Soo-see,' and they have also, whilst 

 feeding and when surprised, a whistled 

 chirp, uttered very softly when at their 

 ease, but sounding more harshly when 

 they are alarmed." 



Dr. Blanford observed these Partridges 

 in Persia, and makes the following re- 

 marks : — " They keep much to low hills 



