308 PERDICIN &. 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p.5; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of 
Sind, p. 213 ; Game Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 9. 
THE BLACK PARTRIDGE. 
Kala Titar, Hin. 
Length, 12°25 to 148; expanse, 18°5 to 21:5; wing, 57 to 
67 ; tail, 3°38 to 44; tarsus, 1°5 to 2; bill from gape, 0°9 to 1:25; 
weight, 8 to 20 oz. 
Bill, g, black, ¢, horny-brown, the tips of both paler ; irides 
deep brown ; legs yellowish or reddish-brown. 
Head, cheeks, and throat, deep black; the top of the head 
and nape edged with rufous, and with some white spots on the 
sides of the occiput, forming a pale line ; ear-coverts pure white ; 
a broad collar of fine chesnut-red passes round the whole neck ; 
upper part of the back black, feathers edged with rufous and 
white tipped ; the middle and lower back, rump, and upper tail- 
coverts finely barred black, and whitish, or grey ; wings with the 
coverts black, with broad bay or rufous edges, and the quills 
barred with rufous and black ; tail black, the middle feathers 
barred with black and grey on the upper parts, the lateral 
feathers being similarly barred at their base only; plumage 
beneath, from the rufous collar, deep black, more or less banded 
on the lower part of the abdomen with white, and the flanks of 
the breast and abdomen spotted with white ; thigh-coverts and 
under tail-coverts chesnut. 
The female differs in wanting the black head and neck of the 
male, which is more or less rufous mixed with brown, the throat 
and sides of the neck being white, and a dusky band surrounds 
the white portion of the ear-coverts ; the back and wings are 
dusky, with pale rufous edges, whitish on the wing ; the back, 
rump, and upper tail-coverts are barred pale rufous and dark 
brown ; the tail feathers blackish, with pale bands ; the medial 
pair brown banded ; beneath, from the throat, the plumage is 
white with black spots, longitudinal and arrow-shaped in front, 
becoming more transverse on the flanks and lower abdomen. 
The Black Partridge is very rare in Northern Guzerat; further 
north it is more frequently met with, and in Sind it is a common 
permanent resident, breeding during June and July. 
The nest, composed of grass, grass roots, &., is usually 
untidily put together, but occasionally is more neater. The eggs, 
six to ten in number, vary greatly in size, but average 1°56 
inches in length to about 1:28 in breadth. In color they vary 
from slightly greenish or brownish-fawn to stone color. 
Francolinus pictus, Jard. & Selb. 
819.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 561 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 6; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 
IX, p. 422 ; Game Birds of India, Vol. II, p.19 ; Swinhoe and 
Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 131. 
