FRANCOLINUS. 137 



Where abundant the Black Partridge affords excellent shooting, 

 especially from elephants, and the flesh is gamey and well- 

 flavoured. 



1373. Francoliims pictus. The Painted Partridge. 



Perdix picta, Jard. $ Selby, 111. Orn. pi. 50 (1828). 



Perdix hepburnii, Gray in Hardw. III. Ind. Zool. \, pi. 55 (1830-32). 



Francolinus pictus, Blyth, Cat. p. 251 ; Jerdon, B. 1. iii, p. 561 ; 

 Beavan, Ibis, 1868, p. 383 ; King, J. A. S. B. xxxvii, pt. 2, p. 216 ; 

 Lloyd, Ibis, 1873, p. 41 5 ; Butler $ Hume, S. F. iv, p. 6 ; v, p. 211 ; 

 Fairbank, S. F. iv, p. 262 ; Ball, S. F. v, p. 419 ; vii, p. 225 ; Hume, 

 Cat. no. 819; Hume fy Marsh. Game B. ii, p. 19, pi.; Leoge, 

 Birds Ceyl. p. 744 ; Hume, 8. F. ix, p. 208 : Butler, ibid. p. 422 ; 

 Vidal, S. F. x, p. 160; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 308; Oates in 

 Humes N. $ E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 430 ; Oailoie Grant, Ibis, 1892, 

 p. 40 ; id. Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 133. 



Titar, Kala titar, Mahr. ; Kakhera kodi, Tel. 



Coloration. Male. Forehead, Supercilia, lores, and sides of head 

 dull ferruginous red ; crown black with buff edges to the feathers ; 

 back and sides of neck the same, but the buff edges are broader and 

 more rufous ; upper back black with white spots ; wing-coverts 

 blackish brown, with large rufous-buff spots and bars ; scapulars 

 the same, each with a submarginal buff band ; quills brown, with 

 transversely broad rufous-buff spots on each web, becoming bars 

 on the secondaries ; lower back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and 

 middle tail-feathers narrowly barred black and white ; outer tail- 

 feathers the same, but with black ends, which are broader on the 

 outermost feathers ; chin and throat paler ferruginous than the 

 cheeks and becoming streaked with black on the fore neck ; breast 

 and flanks nearly covered with buffy-white spots separated from 

 each other by black ; lower abdomen dull rufous, passing into 

 chestnut on the lower tail-coverts. 



Females scarcely differ except that the pale bars on the lower 

 back, rump, and tail are more distant, and buff instead of white; 

 the throat too is whitish. 



Bill blackish ; irides dark brown ; legs yellowish red (Jerdon). 

 No spurs in either sex. 



Length 12; tail 3 ; wing 5-5 ; tarsus 1'7; bill from gape 1*05. 



Distribution. The southern limit of Frannolinus vulc/aris is the 

 northern boundary of the range of the Painted Partridge, which 

 is common in Guzerat, Khandesh, the Nerbudda valley, and parts 

 of the Deccan, less common in the Central Indian Agency, 

 Bundelkhand, Jhansi, Saugor, the Central Provinces, and the 

 northern parts of the Madras Presidency ; still rarer farther south, 

 and wanting on the Malabar coast south of Bombay, in Mysore, 

 and in the peninsula south of Coimbatore. It occurs in Ceylon, 

 but only, so far as is known, on some of the lower hills of the 

 Central Province west and south of Nuwara-Elia. 



Habits, $c. Similar to those of F. vulgaris, except that the present 

 species is more commonly found in dry grassy tracts away from 

 water ; it affects cultivation to a greater extent, and it much more 



