384 Capt. Beavan on various Indian Birds. 



blight orange-red, the bill horny black ; and the tail is black, 

 not " deep brown " as in Dr. Jerdon's description. It is 

 very difficult to distinguish between the sexes ; and the only 

 way I could possibly do it without dissection was by observing 

 the feathers of the breast, the bars on which I found in the male 

 to be interrupted, and in the female continuous across. The 

 bill may perhaps be more correctly described as dark above and 

 fleshy horn-colour beneath ; and the legs are dull orange. The 

 dimensions of both sexes, killed at Morar, are as follows : — 



Length. Wing. Tail. Tarsus, ^f^*^ ^jj^' ^f"^ 2^"' ^'^^ Extent. 

 '^ '^ loot. front. gape. 



c?..12-5 5-375 2-875 1-5 1-75 -75 -875 18-75 



$ . . 12 5-25 3-125 1-5 1-75 -75 -875 18-25 



In the wing-measurement I have only taken the length of the 

 primary feathers, the tertials exceed them by "5 or '75. 



820. Caccabis chukar. Chukor Partridge. 



This bird is very generally found on the hills about Simla ; 

 and the first time I saw wild specimens was in April 1866, 

 when, marching up to that station from Umballah by the new 

 cart-road, I put a pair up off the road-side. I have since had 

 numerous skins sent to me from Kotgurh, a small village in the 

 interior, some fifty miles beyond Simla, where numbers are 

 annually snared by the natives, who sell their skins to the 

 European inhabitants of Simla. They seem to frequent tolera- 

 bly open hill-sides where Cacti abound. Tame specimens are 

 frequently seen in most of the up-country stations, as they are 

 easily kept, and become great pets. 



822. Ortygornis ponticeriana. Grey Partridge. 



This is emphatically the common Indian species, and, although 

 not found on the alluvial soil of Lower Bengal, occurs abun- 

 dantly directly we reach the uplands of the Maunbhoom district, 

 where the natives catch numbers in " phans," or upright nooses 

 into which the wild birds are attracted by a caged one. I have 

 also shot them near Colgong, on the Ganges, and all along the 

 hilly portion of the Grand Trunk road from Raneegunje, up 

 beyond the mountain of Parisnath. They breed in Maunbhoom ; 

 and their eggs are of a cream-colour and unspotted. The call 



