108 PHASTANLD.E. 



there is fairly thick forest on hilly or broken ground, but not in. 

 open or cultivated country nor in alluvial flats. This species also 

 occurs at the foot of the Himalayas in Oudh throughout a con- 

 siderable area. It is unknown except in India. 



Habits, $c. A shy bird, often solitary, keeping much to wooded 

 ravines near water and to bamboo-jungle. It is rarely seen flying, 

 except into a tree when disturbed on the ground, and it is said 

 always to perch at night ; it runs very fast. Its food consists of 

 small fruit, seeds, and insects ; it runs when disturbed or flies up 

 with a harsh cackle ; the call of the i^ale is described by Davison 

 as partridge-like, whilst Jerdou. says it is a sort of cro wing-cry 

 imitated by the Mahratta name Xokatri, and he adds that the call 

 of the female is quite fowl-like. It breeds between the end of 

 February and June according to locality, and perhaps again in 

 October and November, and lays from 4 to 7 eggs (according to 

 Davidson always 3 in Kanara and Nasik), buff or greyish in colour 

 and measuring about 1*67 by 1*28, in a slight nest of grass and 

 leaves on the ground. At the proper season, the cold weather, 

 Spur-fowl are excellent eating if they can be kept a few days 

 before being cooked. 



1350. Galloperdix lunulata. The Painted Sjpur-fowl. 



Perdix lunulata, Valenc. Diet. Sci. Nat. xxxviii, p. 446 (1825). 

 Galloperdix lunulosa, Blyth, Cat. p. 241 ; Jerdon, B. 1. iii, p. 543 ; 



Beavan, Ibis, 1868, p. 382; Blanf. J. A. S. B. xxxviii, pt. 2, 



p. 189. 

 Galloperdix lunulatus, Hume, N. $ E. p. 33 ; Ball, S.F. vii, p. 225; 



Hume $ Marsh. Game B. i, p. 255, pi.; Hume, Cat. no. 815 ; Butler, 



S. F. ix, p. 422 ; Davison, S. F. x, p. 410 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. 



p. 306 ; Oatcs in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 425. 

 Galloperdix lunulata, Oyilrie Grant, Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 263. 



Kainjer, Uriya; Askol, Oris.a and Sirghboom; Hut ka, Gond. (Chanda); 

 Kul-koli, Tarn.*.; Jitta kodi, Tel. 

 



Coloration. Male. Forehead and crown black glossed with 

 metallic green, each feather with an elongate white drop, that has 

 sometimes a black centre ; sides of head and neck all round black 

 with broader white subterminal spots; chin buffy white viith 

 black tips to feathers; back, rump, and wing-coverts chestnut, the 

 feathers tipped with white black-edged ocelli, smaller or replaced 

 by small black tips or sometimes wanting on the lower back and 

 rump : scapulars and some wing-coverts metallic green ; quills 

 dark brown ; upper tail-coverts and tail blackish brown with a 

 slight green gloss ; breast and upper abdomen buff, with triangular 

 black tips to each feather ; lower abdomen and flanks chestnut, 

 with white black-edged spots ; under tail-coverts chestnut mixed 

 with black. 



Female. Crown black, with chestnut shaft-stripes ; forehead, 

 supercilia, and sides of head dark chestnut ; chin and throat 

 chestnut mixed with buff, the latter prevailing on the chin and 



