136 



PHASIANIDJE. 



Female like the male above, hut paler and duller: the chestnut 

 on the neck is confined to a patch at the back ; the rump and tail 

 are brown, with dark-edged buff bars that are wider apart than the 

 white bars of the male ; sides of head and supercilia buff, the ear- 

 coverts dark brown ; lower parts buff, chin and throat whitish, the 

 remainder irregularly barred with brown, the bars on the feathers 

 waved or arrowhead-shaped and broadest on the flanks. In old 

 female birds the bars on the lower surface are narrower, and they 

 tend to disappear on the abdomen. 



In young males the black feathers. of the breast have a pair of 

 subterniinal white spots like those of the sides, and the chm and 

 throat are mixed with white. Young females have the breast 

 similarly spotted, not barred. 



Bill black in the male, dusky brown in the female ; irides brown ; 

 legs and feet brownish red to orange. 



Length of male about 13-5; tail 4 ; wing 6-i!5 ; tarsus 1-9 ; bill 

 from gape 1*15. Females are rather smaller, but there is much 

 variation in size in both sexes. The male has a spur on each 

 tarsus. 



Distribution. The Black Partridge is found in suitable localities 

 throughout Northern India from the Punjab and Sind to Assam, 

 Sylhet, Cachar, and Manipur, the southern boundary in India 

 running south of Cutch and north of Kattywar, thence approxi- 

 mately through Dsa, Gwalior. and Sambalpur to the Chilka 

 Lake in Orissa, whilst to the northward this bird ascends the 

 outer ranges of the Himalayas, and is found along the river-valleys 

 to about 5000 feet or occasionally higher. This Francolin is not 

 known to range east or south beyond Manipur, but west of India 

 it occurs throughout Persia, to Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and 

 Cyprus, and was formerly found in Greece, Italy, Sicily, and 

 Spain, though it is now extinct in those countries. 



Habits, <jvj. The Black Partridge is most commonly found in the 

 Indo-Gangetic plain and neighbouring parts of India, where high 

 grass and tamarisk scrub occur in the neighbourhood of water on 

 the borders of cultivation. It is found in cultivation away from 

 jungle and in bush, but less abundantly, and it is always met with 

 singly or in pairs, never in coveys, except immediately after the 

 breeding-season. It feeds, like other partridges, on seeds and 

 insects. The call of the male, especially uttered in the morning 

 and evening, from an ant-hill or some similar slight elevation, is 

 harsh, and resembles the crow of a pheasant or jungle-fowl more 

 than the recapitulated double whistle of most partridges; it has 

 been imitated in Hindustani by the pious " Subhdn, teri Jcudrat" 

 (Omnipotent, thy power), and by the vulgar " lahsan,pidj, adrak " 

 (garlic, onion, ginger), but "juk-julc, tee-tee-tur" or the English 

 imitation " be quick, pay your debts" come nearer to the five notes 

 of the cry. The breeding-season is from May to August, chiefly 

 in June, and from 6 to 10 eggs of a drab or stone colour, 

 measuring about 1'56 by 1-28, are laid on the ground in a more or 

 less loosely-constructed nest of straw, grass, roots, or leaves. 



