56 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



gunner, the companion bird will return again and again 

 to the spot, to hover and lament over its slain friend in 

 a manner that generally prevails on the hardest hearted 

 to grant immunity to the race for ever after. A contrast 

 to this happy union of lovers is found by the Hindu in 

 the Braminy ducks/'' which also associate in pairs, but, 

 by a cruel fate, are compelled to pass their nights on the 

 opposite banks of a stream, wailing forth their unavailing 

 love in the melancholy " chukwa, chukwi," which few 

 travellers by the rivers of India have failed to hear in 

 the dusk of the evenino^. Their unfitness for the table, 

 probably more than the Hindii adage against their 

 slaughter, protects them from the gun. 



Of other winged game, the gray quail — best of Indian 

 game birds, in my opinion — will be found in good num- 

 bers in most grain fields. I have never seen them here in 

 such swarms as in some parts of upper India, where eighty 

 or a hundred brace may be bagged in a day ; but the 

 sport is none the worse for that. Twenty brace is a 

 first-rate bag in Central India, and generally the sports- 

 man has to be contented with much less. The common 

 gray partridge, which closely resembles in appearance 

 the English bird, abounds in many places. It hugs the 

 vicinity of villages, and feeds foully. I have seen a 

 covey of them run out of the carcase of a dead camel, 

 and speed across the plain like so many hares. These 

 nasty habits, and its skulking nature, much belie its 

 appearance as a bird of game. Far diff'erent is the gallant 

 painted partridge,t which here takes the place of the 

 black partridge J of upper India. I have seen the latter 

 in Bandelkand ; but I am positive that it nowhere occurs 

 in the Central Provinces. The appearance of the two 

 * Casarca ruhila. f Fi-ancolhms pidas, % F. vulgaris. 



