TRE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 195 



Descrijjtion — Adult Male. — Crown to nape sandy or rufous brown, 

 the feathers centred dark brow^n, supercilium and feathers round the 

 eye black ; a broad white band from lower lores, cheeks and ear- 

 coverts white ; chin, throat and broad patch below ear-coverts run- 

 ning up to nape black ; feathers of nape showing a little black and 

 white mottling. A broad chestnut collar all round the neck ; behind 

 the collar the back and sides are black, each feather with white spots 

 on either web; back, scapulars and smaller wing-coverts, and inner- 

 most secondaries brown, each feather with a sub-marginal black- 

 edged band of buff or sandy rufous, the transition from the black 

 upper back being very gradual and not abrupt. Lower back, rump, 

 upper tail-coverts and tail feathers black with narrow white or ful- 

 vous-white bars, the outer tail feathers with the terminal third un- 

 barred black. Primaries, outer secondaries and greats coverts, 

 dark brown with spots or broken bars of rufous buff. 



Below, the breast is black, unspotted in very old males in the cen- 

 tre, but with oval white spots on the sides ; flanks black with 

 larger, longer, oval, white spots, rarely running to longitudinal bars 

 on the posterior flanks and generally with narrow brown fringes ; 

 lower breast and thigh-coverts black to blackish brown with very 

 large white spots or bars ; centre of abdomen and vent light 

 chestnut with whitish bars, under tail-coverts chestnut, rarely 

 having a few bars of white or fulvous. 



Under wing-coverts and axiUaries mottled fulvous and dark brown. 



Colours of Soft Parts. — Irides hazel-brown to dark brown ; bill 

 black or dark horny brown, the tip of the lower mandible whitish ; 

 legs and feet reddish brown to orange red or brick red, always brighter 

 and redder during the breeding season than at other times ; claws 

 black or horny brown ; spur dark horny, often paler at the tip. 



Measurements. — Length about 13 inches (330mm.) ; wing 145-5 to 

 168 mm. ; average 80 birds, 155*3 mm. ; tail 77 to 110 mm.; tarsus 

 about 45 to 50 mm.; bill at front about 24 mm., and from gape 

 27 mm. 



Eirds from various districts vary greatly in size. Thus 41 birds 

 from Gurgaon average under 153, whilst others from Kumaon and 

 Simla average in wing measurement a full 158 mm.; Deccan birds 

 are very small. 



" Weight 10 to 20-ozs." (Hume). 



Hume remarks on the weight " I have shot males in good condi- 

 tion in Gurgaon scrub weighing only 10-ozs. and others in the 

 Kadar of the Ganges, in the Marut district, weighing fully 20-ozs." 



In addition to being smaller, birds from Gurgaon and the Plains 

 generally have darker heads than those from the hills and the wbite 

 and black mottling of the neck seems to extend further down 

 the back. 



