THE NAEBADA VALLEY. 53 



game birds, in my opinion will be found in good numbers in 

 most grain fields. I have never seen them here in such swarms 

 as in some parts of upper India, where eighty or a hundred 

 brace may be bagged in a day ; but the sport is none the 

 worse for that. Twenty brace is a first-rate bag in Central 

 India ; and generally the sportsman has to be contented with 

 much less. The common grey partridge, which closely re- 

 sembles in appearance the English bird, abounds in many 

 places. It hugs the vicinity of villages, and feeds foully. I 

 have seen a covey of them run out of the carcass of a dead 

 camel, and speed across the plain like so many hares. These 

 nasty habits, and its skulking nature, much belie its appear- 

 ance as a bird of game. Far different is the gallant painted 

 partridge,* which here takes the place of the black partridge f 

 of upper India. I have seen the latter in Bandelkand ; but 

 I am positive that it nowhere occurs in the Central Provinces. 

 The appearance of the two species is so alike, and their habits 

 are so identical, that assertions to the contrary have no doubt 

 arisen from mistake. No game bird could afford more perfect 

 shooting than the painted partridge. Of handsome plumage, 

 and excellent on the table, his habits in the field admirably 

 adapt him for the purposes of the gun. He frequents the 

 outskirts of cultivation, in spots where bushes and grass- 

 cover fringe the edge of a stream, for he seems to be very 

 impatient of thirst. The proximity of some sort of jungle 

 seems to be as necessary as the neighbourhood of crops. 

 Morning and evening small coveys or pairs of them will 

 be found out feeding in the stubble of the cut autumn 

 crops, that latest reaped being the most likely find. On being- 

 disturbed they seldom run farther than to the edge of the 

 nearest cover, from which, on being flushed, they rise like 



* Francdlinus jpictua. -f- F. vulgaris. 



