422 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



Bill from front 22 to 26 mm., and from gape 23 to 27 mm. ; tarsus 

 about 43 mm. 



Hume gives the weight as 10 ozs. to 14 ozs., this apparently- 

 including both males and females. 



The Young Male is like the adult female, but soon acquires a blacker 

 more boldly marked breast with more chestnut on the back and 

 scapulars. 



The Young of both Sexes in First Plumage are like the adult female, 

 but are much duller, and there are central pale shaft streaks to the 

 feathers of the neck, upper back, scapulars and inner secondaries. 

 The dark eye-streak and moustachial streak are absent or obsolete, 

 and the under tail-coverts are paler and some times faintly barred. 



Distribution. — South China, Hainan, Yunnan, Cochin China, 

 Siam and the greater part of Burma and the Shan States in suitable 

 localities. It does not appear to be found in Arrakan though it is 

 not rare in parts of Pegu, and is common in the Chin Hills, and is 

 found throughout in the East between these two points. Higgins 

 has recorded in this Journal that he heard this bird calling " all over " ' 

 the South-East of Manipur, and it certainly does occur in that State. 



It has been imported into Mauritius and Madagascar. 



Gates in his Manual of Game-Birds gives the habitat of this bird 

 in Burma at great length, but since he wrote, it has been recorded 

 from so many more places that it is hardly worth while quoting his 

 remarks. 



Harington merely remarks that in Burma it is " universal." 



Nidification. — The breeding season of the Chinese Francolin 

 seems to be very ^extended. Gates records " this Francolin breeds 

 in May or June, but Mr. D. D. Macdonald took a large number of 

 eggs for me at Meiktilla in September, some of which are now in the 

 British Museum. It probably breeds in many months of the year 

 according to locality. The nest is merely a depression in the ground, 

 in which from 4 to 6, or probably more, eggs are laid. They are 

 sharp-pointed ovals in shape, with little gloss, and are a pale bufE, 

 sometimes with a greenish tinge. They measure about l'5"xl"2". 



Mr. Hopwood and Mr. Mackenzie obtained it breeding in Lower 

 Burma in March and April, and on the other hand Harington, like 

 Macdonald, found it breeding in the Chin and Kachin Hills in August, 

 September and even Gctober. It seems very probable that like the 

 other Francolins it has two broods, one before the rains break and 

 the second at the end of the rains. Kershaw says that in China 

 also it has two broods in the year. It makes its nest, such as it is, 

 either in grass-land, scrub jungle, or in bamboo jungle, and in the 

 latter far more often than does either the Black or the Painted 

 Francolin. The nest is the usual natural hollow or scrape in the 



