THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON, 11 
flanks grey, passing into whitish on the centre of the abdomen ; poste- 
rior flanks with white drops ; under tail-coverts rufescent with white 
edges and black spots. 
The spotting on the breast and flanks varies very greatly. A bird 
from Dibrugarh has numerous boid black and white spots on the 
breast, but other birds from the same place are quite normal. 
Colours of Soft Parvts——Bill black ; irides brown or red-brown ; 
orbital and gular skin bright pink, becoming a brilliant deep red in the 
breeding season ; legs dull orange to a bright orange-red, or red, during 
the spring and summer. The females never have the legs so red and 
they are normally a dull waxy-yellow to a rather dark wax-yellow 
very rarely at all tinged with red. In this sex also the bill is browner, 
especially at the base. 
Measurements.—Total length about 275 mm. ; tail about 60-65 mm.; 
wing 135 to 147 mm., averaging about 140°5 ; tarsus 42 to 44 mm. ; 
bill at front 18 to 20mm. The female is a good deal smaller ; the few 
properly sexed skins I have been able to examine had wings varying 
from 126 to 130 mm., and averaged only 129 mm. A larger series 
would probably range somewhat larger. 
Distribution.—Assam, South of the Brahmapootra, and also to the 
North-East in the Dafla and Miri Hills, where it was obtained by God- 
win Austen, and recently in some numbers by H. Stevens. It extends 
through Cachar and Sylhet, Tippera and Chittagong into Arrakan, 
the Chin and Kachin Hills. It has been obtained at Mytikyna by 
Whitehead at 3,500 feet, by Bateman at Kamdoung and in the Kachin 
Hills by Anderson. Dr. Coltart and I found it very common in Mar- 
gherita in extreme Hast Assam, and I repeatedly saw it in Sadiya, 
where Cockburn also got it very many years ago. 
Nidification.—The White-cheeked Hill-Partridge breeds from the 
level of the Plains up to at least 4,000 feet, but is most often found at 
or below 2,000 feet. I have had its eggs brought to me more than 
once in the Barail Hills at nearly 5,000 feet, but it is only a rare breeder 
there. In Cachar, Sylhet and Assam its favourite breeding haunts 
are the broken hills and ravines at the foot of the higher hills, and it 
also nests freely in the scrub-covered hills, or tilaps which lie isolated 
and some distance away from the main hills. In the Khasia Hills it 
is most common at 2,000 feet and under, but is found right up to 
Shillong itself, and I have taken its nest from the hills overlooking the 
race-course at nearly 5,000 feet. 
The breeding season is principally April and May, but in the plains 
a few birds start breeding in March, and in the higher ranges it conti- 
nues well into June, second broods often being reared in July and even 
August. 
It builds its nest in forest, bamboo or scrub jungle or grassland, and 
does not adhere nearly so strictly to dense tree forest as do so many of 
the genus. I have taken its nest in Cachar in thin scrub and quite 
