04 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



tera, Pternistes, and Chcetopus. They are large birds, sometimes called pheasants, and 

 are very abundant in different portions of the ' Dark Continent.' In habits they resemble 

 the common francolin, prefer running to flying, and feed during the morning and 

 evening on grain, insects, and bulbs, which last they dig up with their powerful bills. 

 The males and old females are armed with spurs on the tarsi, and, when disturbed, the 

 species will frequently take refuge in trees, where they also roost. They appear at 

 times to be migratory, caused possibly by the abundance or scarcity of food or water 

 in certain localities. They are very noisy birds, and in one species, S. adspersa, the 

 voice can be heard at a great distance, the notes uttered reseinbliiig a succession of 

 hysterical laughs. 



A genus of gray partridges, styled Ortygornis, containing but two species, is found 

 in India and Ceylon. They are birds of the lowlands, one of the species, 0. gularis^ 

 having been met with as high as four thousand feet, and O. pondicerianus at five 

 thousand feet, which in that land of gigantic peaks is but the summit of a hill. The 

 individual of the last-named species was deemed, however, but a straggler, and was 

 evidently above his range. The flesh is said to be hard, dry, and insipid, hardly worth 

 eating, cook it as you may. These species are extremely pugnacious, and are kept by 

 the natives for fighting, as partridge combats are one of their chief amusements. The 

 0. gularis, whose trivial name is the swamp-partridge, affects, as its name implies, 

 marshy lands and banks of rivers, jungle, thickets, and reed-beds, but always near water. 

 When flushed, it rises with a loud whirr, and a shrill cackle, but does not fly far, and 

 if not bagged can only with great difficulty be forced to take wing again. They are 

 wary and difficult of approach, one of their number being generally posted as a sentinel 

 on the top of a bush, and they keep together in small parties or in pairs. The males are 

 heavily spurred, sometimes having two spurs on each leg, and it is stated that every 

 one examined will be marked with scars from wounds obtained in fighting. The nest 



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is placed on the ground, and the eggs number about five. The O. pondicerianus 

 breeds twice a year, laying seven to nine white eggs tinged more or less in depth with 

 a light coffee-color. These birds weigh from nine to twelve ounces and are from 

 eleven to fifteen inches in length. 



A rather curious partridge with a very long bill is found in Malacca, Sumatra, and 

 Borneo, and is known to naturalists as Rhizotliera longirostris. It is about a foot in 

 length, and the bill is as powerful as that of a peacock. It has the throat, sides of 

 the head, upper part of neck, belly, and flanks rufous yellow; top of head and back 

 chestnut brown with large black spots ; lower part of neck and breast leaden gray ; 

 rump and upper tail-coverts are rufous, crossed with fine zigzag lines of a darker hue, 

 and in the centre and near the end of each feather is a spot of yellowish ochre. A 

 bare red skin encircles the eye. The primaries are rufous, barred with brown. The 

 tarsi are armed with short heavy spurs. The female resembles the male, except that 

 her breast is ferruginous instead of gray, and she has no spurs. 



The last genus of the Perdicinffi is Galloperdix, consisting of three species ; two, 

 G. spadiceus and G. lemulatus, being peculiar to India, and the third, G. zeylonensis, 

 only found in Ceylon. They are rather peculiar birds, resembling in some of their 

 characters the true jungle-fowl of the genus Gallus, having nude skin around the 

 eyes, but without comb or wattles. The sexes are dissimilar, and both are armed with 

 spurs, the male sometimes having as many as three on one leg, occasionally two on 

 one leg and one on the other, the female also at times possessing the same number of 

 weapons. They dwell entirely in woods, and in localities affording dense cover, such 



