THE S FUR FOWL. 



2C£ 



Francolinus nivosus, Delessert, Mag. de Zool. Ois. pi. 18 



(1840). 

 Galloperdix /u?u//osa, Gould, B. Asia, vi. pi. 69 (1854; ; Sclatcr, 



in Wolf's Zool. Sketches (2), pi. 41 (1861). 

 Galloperdix /u/iu/atus, Hume and Marshall, Game Birds of 



India, i. p. 255, pi. (1878) ; Oates, ed. Hume's Nests and 



Eggs Ind. B. iii. p. 425 (1890) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. 



Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 263 (1893). 

 Adult Male. — Crown of the head black, with some purplish- 

 green gloss and spotted with white ; upper-parts chestnut, with 

 white black-edged spots ; rest of head, throat, and neck white 

 spotted and barred with black ; under-parts buff, spotted with 

 black. Total length, 13*6 inches; wing, 6'2 ; tail, 4-8; tarsus, 

 i'5- 



Adult Female. — Crown black, with chestnut shaft-stripes ; 

 above dull olive-brown, most of the feathers with dusky mar- 

 gins; eyebrow-stripes, sides of the head, and throat mostly 

 chestnut ; under-parts dull brownish-ochre shading into olive- 

 brown ; most of the feathers with a blackish marginal spot or 

 band.* Total length, 12-6 inches; wing, 5-9; tail, 4*4; tarsus, 

 1-4. 

 Range.— Peninsula of India, especially the eastern portions. 

 Habits. — Although the Red Spur- Fowl and the present species 

 inhabit much the same area, on the whole the latter may be 

 said to be more of an eastern form, though the ranges of the 

 two birds constantly overlap, and in many localities both species 

 are met with. 



Colonel Tickell writes : " In all places its skulking habits 

 cause it to be very seldom seen. It haunts rocky places 

 buried in thorny thickets, sometimes the stony jungly beds 

 of nalas or small rivers, but more generally the isolated granite 

 hills covered with dense brushwood, which are so common a 

 feature in Chota Nagpore. It is generally in beating those 



* In some examples these black spots are absent. 



