2 1 8 "^ GALLIFORMES 



CHAP. 



wash on the wing-coverts and rump. The cheeks, throat, and 

 much of the upper and under tail-coverts are crimson, the breast 

 is yellow-green with crimson streaks. /. geoffroyi of East Tiljet 

 and West China has a grey head and throat ; /. sinensis of Mon- 

 golia and North China is similar, with rufous for green on the 

 wing-coverts. Females are grey, brown, and buff. Found in 

 flocks of twenty or thirty at altitudes between ten and fourteen 

 thousand feet, these bold birds have limited powers of flight, 

 great speed of foot, and a weak cackling note ; they bury them- 

 selves occasionally in the snow, as do certain Grouse (p. 238), 

 and feed on grass, insects, berries, and shoots of juniper or pine. 



If a Sub -family Ferdicinae be admitted, it may be com- 

 menced ^ with the little known Ophrysia swperciliosa of North- 

 West India, a soft-plumaged greyish-brown species with black 

 and white markings on the head ; next to which comes Gallo- 

 2)erdix, the Spur-Fowl, with a large bare eye-space, and two or 

 three spurs on each foot in the male, reduced to a single pair in 

 the female. G. spadicea of India, which has been introduced 

 into Madagascar, has a brown crown, and chestnut plumage else- 

 where, with grey margins to the feathers, and black vermicula- 

 tions on the wing-coverts and rump ; the female being mottled 

 with black. G. lunulata, another Indian form, has the crown 

 black with white streaks, the breast buff with black spots, and 

 black-ringed white ocelli on the mantle ; G. hiccdcarata of Ceylon 

 has both mantle and crown black with white stripes, and the 

 breast whiter. These birds frequent thick jungles near the 

 coast, or hills up to seven thousand feet, and are extremely wild, 

 . though hard to flush ; they resort to trees in emergencies, and 

 roost in them at night ; the note is a harsh or plaintive whistle ; 

 the food consists of grain, insects, and their larvae. Four, five, or 

 even ten whitish or buff eggs are deposited on a few diy leaves 

 below some sheltering shrub. The cocks are stated to fight as 

 viciously as Jungle-Fowl. Bamhusicola fytchii, the Bamboo- 

 Partridge, found from North -East India to China, hafe the 

 crown and ear-coverts red-brown ; the upper parts olive-brown, 

 varied in places with black and buff, and longitudinally marked 

 with chestnut, except towards the rump ; the wing- and tail- 

 quills reddish mottled with buff; the superciliary stripe, throat, 



1 Mr. Ogilvie Grant begins with Excalphatoria. Of. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxii. 

 1893, pp. 94-95. 



