324 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



the whole neck, back, breast, ab'domen and sides of the body black ocellated 

 with white, the spots tinged more or less with fulvous, especially on the 

 sides of the body, and becoming larger as they approach the tail ; under 

 tail-coverts chestnut ; rump and upper tail-coverts black barred with white ; 

 scapulars and tertiaries chestnut ; coverts and wings blackish, ocellated and 

 barred with white ; tail black barred with white except at the tip. 



The female has the chin and throat white, and the whole lower plumage 

 barred with black ; the under tail-coverts chestnut ; the sides of the head 

 fulvous, with an indication of the black cheek-stripe of the male, but with 

 no superciliary or coronal band ; the whole summit of the head brown edged 

 with fulvous-brown ; the hind neck black, barred or ocellated with white ; 

 the back brown with whitish shaft-streaks, a few cross bars and black 

 patches in the centres of the feathers ; the rump and upper tail-coverts 

 brown, freckled and vermiculated with grey and whitish ; tail blackish, 

 barred with white at the base ; the wings brown, barred with white and 

 tinged with rufous on the tertiaries. 



Iris light reddish hazel ; bill dark blackish brown, paler at the tip of the 

 upper mandible ; eyelids pale greenish ; legs orange ; claws pale horn. 



Length 13 inches, tail 3*3, wing 5*7, tarsus 1*7, bill from gape 1. The 

 female is smaller. 



The Chinese Francolin is confined in Burmah to the upper portion of the 

 Irrawaddy valley above Prome. It has not been observed in the very 

 similar country in the Sittang valley about Tonghoo ; but further east 

 Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay met with it in Karennee, where it was abundant. 



It is found in Independent Burmah, Southern China, Siam and Cochin 

 China. 



This Francolin is abundant throughout the Thayetmyo and a portion of 

 the Prome Districts. It frequents open places in forests, old clearings, 

 bamboo-jungle and waste land. Seldom are more than two birds seen 

 together ; as a rule they are solitary. They cannot be said to perch, but 

 they are continually standing on stumps and the larger branches of low 

 trees, from which situations they utter their very peculiar cry, which Capt. 

 Wardlaw Ramsay has clearly rendered by the term kuk-kuk-kuich-ka-kd. 

 I have comparatively seldom found them in stubble ; they seem to prefer 

 grass and cover ; and their food consists chiefly of grass-seeds, ants and 

 buds. The breeding-season appears to commence in June ; and the nest or 

 hollow in which the eggs are laid is situated on a hill-side at the foot of a 

 bamboo bush. The eggs, which are sometimes eight in number, are very 

 pale buff. 



