PHASIANIDAE 225 



flight at starting, and their easy gliding motion afterwards. 

 The well-known crowing note is most commonly heard towards 

 evening. The nest, a circular cavity lined with grass, is placed 

 among short herbage, often near a road, the drab-coloured or, 

 exceptionally, bluish eggs varying from nine to twenty or 

 more in number. Both parents tend the young and employ 

 many devices to mislead an intruder ; at night the family parties 

 roost upon the ground, and later in the year pack into larger 

 coveys. The methods of sportsmen and poachers cannot be dis- 

 cussed at length in our limited space, but the general adoption 

 of driving, instead of shooting over dogs due to improved 

 systems of farming should not be left unnoticed. 



P. daiirica (hao-hata), of Asia east of the Altai and Tian-shan 

 Eanges, exhibits lanceolate feathers on the sides of the throat, 

 like Coturnix jcqjonica, and a black "horse -shoe" mark on the 

 golden-buff breast ; the latter part in P. hodgsoniae, of South 

 Tiljet and the extreme north of India, lieing white with wide 

 bars and a large basal patch of black ; P. sifanica of ITorth-West 

 China and North Tibet lacks the black patch, and has less black 

 on the sides of the head and throat. The two last-named birds 

 reach the snow-line at about eighteen thousand feet ; the first of 

 them at least having a nest and eggs like the Common Part- 

 ridge. Rhizothera longirostris, of the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, 

 and Sumatra, has long sharp curved beak and powerful whitish 

 metatarsi, provided with a pair of stout spurs in each sex. The 

 upper plumage is rich brown with black and buff markings ; a grey 

 shade pervades the neck and lower back, and chestnut tints the 

 cheeks, throat, and wings ; the under parts are grey, merging 

 posteriorly into buff. The hen has a chestnut fore-neck, and is 

 less grey above. P. dulitensis of Borneo is similar. 



The genus Pternistes contains the naked-throated Ethiopian 

 Francolins. P. nudicollis of South Africa is brown above with 

 black shaft -stripes, the mantle being greyer, the superciliary 

 stripes and face black, the sides of the neck and lower parts 

 black with white streaks. The female has a grey and rufous 

 chest, the male a pair of sharp spurs. The bare orbits and 

 throat are crimson, the bill and feet orange -red. P. hum- 

 holdti of East Africa and P. afer (ruhricoUis) of western South 

 Africa resemble the above, but have two pairs of spurs. P. 

 cranchi differs in having the neck, mantle, and under surface 



VOL. IX Q 



