158 POULTRY AND GAME BIRDS. 



This is a very long preface, but in truth there is 

 little else to be said, for the gallinaceous order is 

 almost unrepresented among the wild birds of 

 Bombay. From a sporting paper that once flourished 

 amongst us it appears that, in the early years of 

 the century, when a Griffin arrived, it was considered 

 a good joke to lend him a couple of pariah dogs, 

 with ears and tails cropped, and send him to Old 

 Woman's Island (i.e. Colaba) to shoot Partridges ; 

 but I do not know whether the point of the joke 

 was that there were Partridges in Old Woman's 

 Island or that there were none. There are none now. 

 On the other side of the harbour the Painted 

 Partridge (Francolinus pictiis) is still found and 

 would be plentiful if so many were not snared during 

 the breeding season for the Bombay market. I 

 caught one once on Cumballa Hill, or rather my 

 dog did, but it had evidently escaped from the hands 

 of the executioner. The Grey Quail and the Rain 

 Quail spread everywhere during the cold season, 

 but there is scarcely an acre of ground left in Bombay 

 on which they could find a living. There is one 

 bird, however, of that family which can still make 

 itself happy among us. I mean the Rock Bush 

 Quail, as Jerdon calls it (Perdicida asiaticci), though 

 it is rather a miniature Partridge than a Quail. It 

 is a globular bird, about the size of a cricket ball, 

 and nearly the same colour from the point of view 

 from which it is generally seen. That is when you 

 put up a covey out of a bush, and it explodes like 

 a shell, the fragments flying in all directions. They 

 do not fly far, but drop into bushes again and crouch 

 for a while in silence. Then one and another utters 



