134 PHASIATTID.E. 



the flanks whitish, with chestnut inner webs and black margins to 

 each web. 



Females differ in wanting the black and white markings of the 

 head, which is dull brownish grey irregularly barred with whitish ; 

 the upper parts are more isabelliue than in the male, the wings 

 more coarsely marked, and the scapulars blotched with brown ; 

 there is no grey on the throat nor black and chestnut on the flanks, 

 the lower parts are barred light brown and buff, the throat is 

 whitish, the middle of the abdomen with the lower tail-coverts 

 being entirely buff, and there are bioad but taint oblique streaks 

 of whitish on the abdomen and flanks. 



Bill orange to chestnut ; irides yellow to orange-brown ; legs 

 wax-yellow ; claws pale brown (Hume). 



Length of male about 10; tail 2*5.; wing 5-5; tarsus 1'25; bill 

 from gape '7. Females are rather smaller : wing 5. 



Distribution. The Salt Range and Khariar hills of the Punjab; 

 Hazara, and all the ranges of the Punjab and Sind west of the 

 Indus. To the westward this bird ranges throughout Baluchistan, 

 Afghanistan, and Persia, and is said to have been obtained in 

 Arabia near Aden. 



Habits, Sfc. The Seesee is chiefly found on bare rocky and stony 

 hillsides, and is commonly seen in ravines, never in forest or thick 

 bush. It is a bird of hilly deserts. It is usually met with in pairs 

 even in the winter. Thy call is a soft, clear, double note. The 

 flight rather resembles a quail's, and the bird rises with a whistle. 

 This species breeds from April till June, and lays 8 to 12 creamy- 

 white eggs, measuring about 1*4 by 1'03, in a slight nest on the 

 ground, often between stones or under a bush. Hume speaks of 

 Seesee as poor eating, but my experience of them in Siud and 

 Persia was much more favourable. 



Genus FRANCOLINUS, Stephens, 1819. 



Tail of 14 feathers, slightly rounded, rather more than half as 

 long as the wing; the 3rd or 4th quill longest, 5th and 6th nearly 

 as long. Tarsus usually spurred in males. Sexes similar or dis- 

 similar. 



The Indian birds included in the present genus by Mr. Ogilvie 

 Grant, whom I have followed, have been by most ornithologists 

 divided between two genera, Francolinus and Ortyyornis, the Grey 

 and Kyah Partridges being referred to the latter, which is distin- 

 guished by having the sexes alike, by different plumage, voice, 

 and habits. But the sexes are similar in Francolinus pictus, the 

 habits of the two species referred to Ortygornis have nothing in 

 common, and there are African forms that tend to connect all the 

 Indian species with each other. The great majority of the 42 

 species referred to Francolinus are African, but five species are 

 found in India or Burma, and some of them range over a great part 

 of Southern Asia, 



