294 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



preaching the limits of forest. Though 

 far from being rare, fewer perhaps are met 

 with than of any other kind, unless it is 

 particularly sought for, always excepting 

 the Jewar. The reason of this may be 

 that the general character of the ground 

 where they resort is not so inviting in 

 appearance to the sportsman as other 

 places ; besides, they are everywhere 

 confined to particular localities, and are 

 not like the rest scattered indiscriminately 

 over almost every part of the regions they 

 inhabit. Their haunts are on grassy hills, 

 with a scattered forest of oak and small 

 patches of underwood, hills covered with 

 the common pine, near the sites of 

 deserted villages, old cowsheds, and 

 the long grass amongst precipices and 

 broken ground. They are seldom found 

 on hills entirely destitute of trees or 

 jungle, or in the opposite extreme of deep 

 shady forest ; in the lower ranges they 

 keep near the tops of the hills, or about 

 the middle, and are seldom found in the 

 valleys or deep ravines. Farther in the 

 interior, they are generally low down, 

 often in the immediate vicinity of the 

 villages; except in the breeding season, 

 when each pair seek a spot to perform the 

 business of incubation, they congregate 



