ARBORICOLA. 555 



. Throughout India, Ceylon, Beloochistan and S. Persia. Affects 

 dry, scrubby or bare stony tracts. Delights among Euphorbia bushes. In the 

 morning they are generally found in fields or on the edges of cultivation, where 

 they pick up seeds and corn, also insects of all kinds. They afford fair sport 

 with one or two good men, or a good dog and one's wits against the birds. 

 Breeds from February to May, and from July to November. In Bengal, 

 either in the deltaic district or in the Eastern Provinces, it does not occur, nor 

 in Assam or Burmah. In the Deccan it ascends to 2,500 feet or more ; in the 

 Himalayas and Southern India not above i,OOO feet. 



1220. Ortygornis gularis (Temm.), Jerd., B. Ind. iii. p. 572, No. 



823 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs Ind. B. p. 544 ; id. and Marsh., Game, Birds 

 p. 59, pi. Perdix gularis, Hardw.^ III. Ind.Zool.i. pi. 56, fig. i. The KYAH 

 PARTRIDGE. 



Crown olive brown ; lores, a streak below the eye and supercilium pale 

 buff ; a line through the eye to the ear coverts dusky brown ; back brown, 

 barred with buff ; wing coverts the same ; primaries brown on the outer web, 

 ferruginous on the inner ; tail ferruginous, central feathers brown ; chin and 

 throat rusty ferruginous ; breast and abdomen brown with broad white streaks 

 edged with black ; under tail coverts ferruginous ; under wing coverts ferru- 

 ginous. Bill blackish ; irides dark brown ; legs litharge or dull red. 



Length. 15 to 15-5 inches; wing 7-1 to 7-25; tail 4*5 ; tarsus 2*5; bill 

 from gape i-oi. 



Hab. Bengal from Tirhoot and Goruckpoor to the Sunderbuns, extending 

 eastwards into Assam, Sylhet, Cachar, and Tipperah. In the Western Pro- 

 vinces of Bengal, it is found on the north bank of the Ganges, crossing in a 

 few suitable localities from Monghyr to Rajmahal. It is also found up to 

 the base of the Himalayas and in the Oudh Terai. Jerdon adds that its 

 favourite grounds are thick beds of reeds and long grass, along the banks of 

 rivers, jheels and watercourses, and especially in those swampy patches of 

 reeds where the creeping rose bushes form thickets impenetrable to aught but 

 an elephant. It is said to breed from March to May. The eggs, 5 in number, 

 are, it is said, laid under some thick bush in a dry spot, and to be white, like 

 those of the Grey Partridge. 



Perdix Hodgsoni, Gould, figured by Gould in his " Birds of Asia," 

 pt. ix., pi. 2, does not appear to have been yet obtained within our limits. 

 The upper plumage is olive brown, and the lower parts buff ; sides and 

 back of the neck and wings chestnut red ; head red, speckled with white ; 

 line from the forehead round the ear coverts and throat black. (Jerd) 



Gen. Arboricola. Hodgs. 



Tarsus not spurred ; toes long with long claws ; tail short, of 12 feathers. 

 Sexes similar in plumage. 



