PHASIANID2E FBANCOLINUS 209 



covey consists as a rule of two or three brace; they nest in the 

 grass or in the vicinity of some old field which they frequent ;~Mr. 

 Millar found a nest on August 8, which contained five fresh eggs 

 these were minutely spotted, and measured 1-5 x I'O. 



Mr. J. ffolliott Darling writes me that this Francolin is widely 

 distributed in Mashonaland and is found in every sort of country, 

 except near the vleis ; it is probably most abundant in lightly 

 wooded country ; sometimes a covey will haunt a bare kopje without 

 a bush on it or scarcely a blade of grass ; there the birds would 

 hide between the stones and rocks, and so close do they lie, even 

 when a dog points to them, that it is often possible to catch them 

 in the hand ; the Mashonas often follow them and, watching where 

 they pitch, kill them with sticks. They are fond of digging up roots 

 of grass in the dry season and become very fat in consequence ; 

 they also gorge themselves on locusts. 



The nest is a slight structure of dry grass in a shallow 

 depression, sometimes in the open, sometimes under the shelter of a 

 small bush. Mr. Darling has found eggs in every month from June 

 to November, and states that the clutches average four. 



654. Francolinus adspersus. Red-billed Francolin. 



Francolimis adspersus, Waterhouse, in Alexander's Exped. Int. Afr 

 ii, p. 267, with fig. (1838) ; Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 269 (1867) ; id. 

 Ibis, 1869, p. 375 ; SJiarpe, ed. Layard' 8 B. S. Afr. p. 590 (1884) ; 

 Scliaeck, Mem. Soc. Zool. Fr. iv, p. 353 "(1891) ; Grant, Ibis, 1892, 

 p. 46 ; id. Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 159, pi. vii, (1893) ; id. Game Birds, i, 

 p. 124 (1896) ; Nicolls and Eglington, Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 104 (1892); 

 Bryden, Gun and Camera, pp. 282, 470 (1893) ; Fleck, Journ. 

 Ornith. 1894, pp. 242-3, 391 ; Shelley B. Afr. i, p. 181 (1896); 

 Beiclienow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 474 (1901). 



Scleroptera adspersa, Gurney, in Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 247 

 (1872). 



Description. Adult Male. Whole of the upper surface, except 

 the upper part of the mantle finely vermiculated, with brown and 

 dirty white ; primaries brown, not vermiculated ; lores and feathers 

 in front of the eye nearly black ; whole of the lower surface, 

 including the sides of the neck and mantle, very finely barred with 

 brown and white. 



Iris brown, bare skin round eye pale yellow, bill, legs and feet 

 coral red ; toes and spurs purple ; tarsus with sharp spur in the 

 male. 



Length 13-0; wing 7-0 ; tail 3-5; culmen 1-07; tarsus 1-7. 

 14 VOL. iv. 



fL 



