THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 15 
jungle, and were laid on the ground in a hollow well filled in with 
bamboo leaves and grass. I went out and took them myself, and 
shot a specimen of this Partridge close by, although not actually 
off the nest, and I have no doubt as to their authenticity.” 
These eggs were taken in June. 
Habits—-The Brown-breasted Hill Partridge is a bird of compara- 
tively low levels, and will be found principally in the broken, hilly 
country bordering the plains, and thence commonly up to some 3,000 
feet, and, again, some way into the plains themselves. On the other 
hand they have been shot at some 5,000 feet, and occasionally may be 
found to wander up even higher than this. 
They keep in small coveys of 4 or 5 to 8 or 9 birds, probably just 
the parent birds and their last brood, though possibly two families 
may sometimes join forces. Typically they are frequenters of dense 
forest with heavy undergrowth, but will now and then be seen—as 
with those shot by Col. Harington—in bamboo and scrub jungle. 
Although it has been obtained so often since Hume’s days, no one 
has recorded anything about their habits. Darling wrote about that 
time :— 
“ There was not a day at Thoungyah that I did not see two or 
three coveys of this Partridge, counting each from 3 to 10, or 
even more birds ; but owing to their shyness and dead leaf colour, 
they are very difficult to secure. They feed among the dead leaves 
on seeds, insects, and small shells, and are very restless, giving a 
scratch here, a short run and another scratch there, and so on, 
uttering a short cooing whistle the whole time. When disturbed 
by a man, they always disappeared into the dense undergrowths, 
but a dog always sent them flying into some small tree, whence 
they would at once begin calling to one another, whistling at first 
low and soft, and gomg up higher and shriller, till the call was 
taken up by another bird. I often got quite close to them, but the 
instant I was seen, away they ran helter skelter in all directions, 
and I could only now and then catch a glimpse of the little fellows 
scuttling through the bushes. Of course they are entirely a 
forest bird, though they may be seen just at the outskirts of this.” 
Oates found this bird and Tropicoperdix chloropus very common in 
the densely-wooded ravines and nullahs of the evergreen forests on 
the Hastern slopes of the Pegu hills, but he never found the two birds 
together in the same area “cach species appearimg to occupy one 
stream to the exclusion of the other.” 
Tickell refers to their making a curious low “ pur-r-r ” not unlike 
the call of the Button Quail as they wandered about feeding in the 
undergrowth. No one else seems to have heard any of the other Wood- 
Partridges making a sound of this nature. 
