S04f LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR/ 



Legs and feet in male greenish ; the spurs horny white ; claws 

 pale horny ; facial skin in both sexes bright crimson ; bill 

 in female pea green, the base being tinged dusky ; irides brick; 

 red in male, dusky red in young female. 



The decoy birds kept by the Assamese do not seem to be 

 afraid of their masters, but the moment they see an European 

 they commence to flutter and beat their wings against their 

 cage bars. These birds feed in the early morning and just 

 about sunset, at which times fair sport can be had on the 

 public roads, wherever these are damp and dark owing to the 

 forest trees overhanging them, into which these birds come to 

 feed. I have seen them at times feeding in company with 

 Gallus ferrugineus.—J. B,. C] 



812.— Gallus ferrugineus, Gm. 



Though this species seemed very scarce, we procured it in the 

 low valleys and about the bases of both Eastern and Western 

 hills. It is certainly not one-tenth as numerous as the Kalij , 

 and while the Nagas readily trapped both this and the Wood 

 Partridges, they never once brought in a specimen of the pre- 

 sent species. From first to last we only got four, all of which 

 I shot myself, three in the Western, one in the Eastern hills, 

 all low down, and I saw three others. 



This species is generally distributed in suitable localities 

 throughout the whole of Assam, Sylhet, Cachar and British 

 Burmah, alike in the plains and the less elevated portions of 

 the hills. 



[Common in suitable localities in Dibrugarh.— J. K C] 



818.— Francolinus vulgaris, Steph. 



Thinly distributed, wherever there is long grass and water, 

 about the Manipur basin. I am very doubtful whether the 

 Eastern form of the Black Partridge should not be specifically 

 separated from the Western Indian one, which is identical with, 

 that of Persia, Palestine and Cyprus. 



Long ago I noticed the very peculiar colouring of some Black 

 Partridges Mandelli had from the eastern portions of the Sikhim 

 Terai and the Bhutan Dooars. Then I noticed it in a Shillong 

 specimen, then in a Cachar one, and now in Manipur I found 

 that all the birds, male and female, are of this type. 



They differ from the Western type (1) in having the 

 ground of all the feathers of the interscapulary region, scapu- 

 lars, coverts, and tertiaries, black instead of brown ; (2) in having 

 a broad band of unbroken black unspotted with white on the 



