562 TETRAONID^E. 



Hab. The extreme south of Tenasserim, extending down the Malay Penin- 

 sula, to Sumatra and Borneo. According to Davison it is always found in 

 small parties of six or eight or more ; keeps to the dense forests, and never 

 ventures in the open ; lives on berries, seeds and insects. 



Gen. PerdiCUla. Hodgs. 



Bill short, thick, curved; tarsus with a blunt tubercle; wings rounded; 

 outer webs of most of the primaries sinuated; tail short of 12 feathers. Size 

 small. 



1231. PerdiCUla asiatica (Latham), Gould, B. A. S. part xv. pi. 12 ; 

 Temm.j PI. Col. p. 447; Hume, Str. F. vii. p. \tfi\Hume and Marsh., Game 

 Birds p. 109, pi. Coturnix pentah, Sykes, Trans. Zool. Socy. ii. pi. 3 ; 

 Hardw., 111. Ind. Zool. 2, pi. 45, fig. 3. Perdicula cambayensis, apud Jerd. y 

 B. Ind. iii. p. 581, No. 826. The JUNGLE BUSH QUAIL. 



Above rich dark reddish brown, mottled with dull rufous ; supercilium 

 rufous white, narrowly edged with black, an indistinct pale line from the 

 gape ; feathers of the back of the neck and the back white shafted ; scapulars 

 and wing coverts richly marked on their inner webs with pale creamy white 

 and black ; primaries red-brown with tawny spots and bars ; tail with a few 

 black bars ; chin rich chestnut ; rest of the under surface white, tinged with 

 rufescent on the lower abdomen, flanks, vent and lower tail coverts, and with 

 numerous cross bars of black, smallest on the throat and sides of the neck. 

 Bill dusky, tinged with reddish ; irides light brown ; legs yellowish red. 



Length. 6-5 to 7'2 inches ; wing 3 to 3*5 ; tail 1*5 to 178 ; tarsus 0*94 to 

 I ; bill from gape 0-5 to O'6. 



Sab. Generally distributed throughout India, Ceylon, Malabar Coast, 

 the Wynaad, Mysore, Madras, Eastern Ghauts, Western Ghauts, Khandalla, 

 Mahableshwar, Rutnagherry, and South Konkan generally ; Chanda, Seoni, 

 Nursingpur, Manbhoom, Rajmahal hills, Mirzapoor, Etawah, Kuchawan Hills, 

 Mount Abu, Lucknow, Umballa, the Dhoon, Mussoorie, Simla, lower Hima- 

 layan ranges below Kumaon and Kashmir, are some of the recorded localities 

 given by Mr. Hume, where this species is common. They always keep in 

 small coveys in grass jungle or stubble long enough to hide them. They 

 feed of course on seeds and grains of .sorts. Breeds from September to 

 January according to locality, making a nest on the ground under the shelter 

 of some bush or tuft of grass. It is shallow and circular, and lined or made 

 up of grass roots, grass and a few dead leaves. Eggs, 5 7 in number, 

 regular ovals, more or less pointed towards one end, with a faint gloss, and in 

 colour spotless creamy white. Size from 0-96 to ri in length and 079 to O'9 

 in breadth. 



1232. PerdiCUla argoondah, Sykes, Trans. Zool. Soc. ii. 

 pi. 2 ; Jerd., B. Ind. iii. p. 583, No. 827 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs Ind. B. 



