554 TETRAONID^. 



parts isabelline or pale brownish, freckled with dusky ; rump and upper tail 

 coverts like the back, with darker markinga; primaries isabelline on their 

 outer webs, finely pencilled with dusky, and all, except the first, with broad 

 whitish bands or bars ; tail brownish, tinged with chestnut, the tips of the 

 feathers freckled with dark brown ; legs and feet dingy yellow ; irides bright 

 or orange yellow ; bill orange ; cere orange red. 



Length 9 to n inches; wing 475 to 575; tail 2-5. Female slightly 

 smaller, has not the dull grey crown of the male, and in general is more 

 brownish throughout ; the black markings on the head are replaced by freckles 

 of dusky or black and white, and the entire upper and lower surface of the 

 body is mottled. 



Hab. Sind, Punjab, N.-W, Provinces, Beloochistan and Afghanistan, also 

 Persia. Numerous throughout Upper Sind, also in Beloochistan, where in 

 the early morning, especially on broken ground and on the road in the Bolan, 

 as many as two or three hundred may be met with, feeding on the droppings 

 of cattle, or, in its absence, on grass seeds along the hill sides. Breeds in the 

 Punjab, Beloochistan and Afghanistan in April and May, nesting in a slight 

 depression in the ground under some thick bush or jutting rock. Eggs 

 10 12 in number rather lengthened ovals, more or less compressed or 

 pointed towards one end ; in colour from pure white to a pale cafe, au lait. 

 They vary in size from 1*3 to i'5 inches in length X 0*98 to 1*1 in breadth. 



Gen. OrtygOrniS. Reich. 



1219. Ortygornis ponticeriana, Gmei., Syst. Nat. \. p. ; Gray, 



III. Ind. Zool., pi. 56, fig. 2 ; Jerd., B. Ind. iii. p. 569, No. 822 ; Murray, 

 Hbdk., Zool., fyc., Sind, p. 203 ; id., Vert. Zool., Sind, p, 214 ; Hume, Nests 

 and Eggs, Ind. B. p. 54 2 J Hume and Marsh., Game Birds p. 51, pi. The 

 COMMON GREY PARTRIDGE. 



Forehead, over the eyes, lores, nape and face rufous, the face with dusky 

 freckles ; top of the head olive brown ; ear coverts rufescent brown ; back, 

 scapulars and wing coverts dark chestnut, each feather with two or three 

 transverse buffy bars, bordered with black on both sides ; feathers of the rump 

 and upper tail coverts similar, but olive brown instead of chestnut; tail 

 feathers rich chestnut or deep ferruginous, with a broad subterminal dark 

 brown nearly black band, tipped with pale or yellowish white ; central tail 

 feathers like the back ; beneath the chin and throat are white or creamy, 

 encircled from the base of the lower mandible with dark spots, forming a 

 gular patch ; breast and entire lower parts creamy white, or very pale buff, the 

 feathers with transverse dark bars ; lower tail coverts ferruginous. The female 

 is like the male, but paler in colour, and wants the spur. 



Length. 1 1*5 to 13-5 inches ; wing 5-5 to 6; tail 3-35 to 4 ; legs bright red ; 

 irides brown ; the orbital ring with a row of minute white feathers ; bill dusky 

 brown. 



