TRE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 209 



In texture they are fine and close, and the surface has a distinct 

 gloss sometimes quite highly developed. They are much more 

 fragile than the eggs of the Francolinus francolinus, a difference 

 strikingly great between two species so very closely allied. 



The average size of 15 eggs, all I have been able to examine of 

 true pictus, is 35 • 9 X 30 • 9 mm. The smallest egg both in length and 

 breadth measures 33 • 6 x 28 • 6 mm., the longest is 37 "8 x 31 '9 mm., 

 and the broadest is 36 '5 x 32*0 mm. 



The Hen-bird is a very close sitter, and will not move until 

 almost trampled on. 



The Cock-bird is monogamous, and like the rest of his genus, 

 probably pairs for life. 



They breed only in the Plains, and nowhere do they ascend 

 the hills for more than a few hundred feet, and even that only as 

 stragglers. 



General Habits. — The habits of the Painted Partridge are very 

 similar to those of the Black Partridge, but whereas the latter 

 prefers good cover combined if possible with a certain amount of 

 dampness, the Painted Partridge likes very dry jungle, and does 

 not mind its being rather thin. It never enters the heavy forest of 

 l^e Western Coast, but wherever cultivation has taken the place 

 of forest, and grass has grown up over the abandoned areas, there 

 almost to a certainty, the Painted Partridge will sooner or later 

 put in an appearance. 



Perhaps its favourite haunts are short grass on broken, stony 

 plateaus and plains, or thin scrub jungle, and in either place trees 

 are desiderata, for this bird is much more fond of perching than 

 the Black Partridge. They call like that bird from some elevated, 

 perch but more often from trees rather than from ant-hills 

 boulders and fallen stumps. 



Hume says that the Painted Partridge " often, if not generally, 

 roosts on bushes and trees, whence I have shot them after dusk and 

 have disturbed them before dawn", and he adds that they may 

 often be seen perched on some conspicuous part of the tree whilst 

 the hen sits modestly — and wisely — hidden in the thicker foliage. 



They are often found in such crops as offer suitable cover, or if 

 the crops themselves are too thin they hide in the adjacent scrub or 

 grass and wander out into the fields in the mornings and evenings 

 to feed, scratching about in the earth and picking up grain, seeds 

 and insects, or feeding on green shoots, etc. White ants are a very 

 favourite food with this bird, as indeed with almost all birds, and it 

 is said to be a foul feeder when living anywhere near villages. 



Pitman found that it drank regularly every evening about si 

 o'clock in July in the Central Provinces, but he did not notice it 

 drinking in the morning as the Black Partridge always did. 



