THE GAME BIRDS 01 INDIA, BVRMA AND CEYLON. 427 



In Behar this Partridge apparently sometimes nests in the thatch- 

 ing grass growing by tanks, similar to that described by Rainey, but 

 I have myself seen no nest in such a position. 



In Cachar and Sylhet we found the nests most difficult to locate, 

 even after we had heard the males calling continually from one spot. 

 They were always placed in the thickest patches of reeds or nal, and 

 nearly always practically entirely hidden by the fallen stems of the 

 dead stuff. Fortunately the hens are very close sitters, and by making 

 a line through the reeds with half a dozen beaters one could get very 

 close to the nest before she made off, usually with a tremendous 

 fluster and loud cackles. Even then a very careful search is 

 often required before the nest is actually discovered. 



Five seems to be the maximum number of eggs laid, though 6 may 

 possibly be found now and then. Often only three eggs are incubatecl, 

 and I should consider 3 or 4 the normal clutch. At the same time 

 I have been most unlucky in taking this bird's nest, finding but few 

 even in Cachar and Sylhet, where the bird was very common forty 

 years ago, and probably still is. 



The eggs are not in the least like any of the other Francolins, and 

 its nesting habits alone would lead one to infer that it must belong to 

 a different genus to these birds. In shape they, the eggs, are rather 

 long ovals, generally decidedly pointed at the smaller end. They 

 are never peg-top or pyriform in shape, and the texture is very close 

 and hard, often with tiny pits scattered here and there over the whole 

 surface. In colour they are a pale stone, generally with a famt, 

 reddish or rufescent tinge, and in most cases there are numerous 

 small reddish freckles and blotches, sometimes confined to the larger 

 end, sometimes scattered thinly over the whole egg. 



24 eggs average 39-6 x 29*8 mm. ; the longest and shortest measure 

 respectively 42*0 x 29-9 mm., and 38-1 x 29-3 mm. ; the broadest 

 and most narrow 39*5 x 30-9 and 38*2 x 29*0 mm. 



General HaUts.—^h.i\Bt all the other species of Indian Francolins 

 are found both in the plains and on the hills, this bird is essentially 

 not only a bird of the plains, but is one which is found only in the 

 lowest-lyingswampy tracts, subject to flooding in the rains, and 

 never wholly dry. It haunts principally the dense Ekra and elephant 

 grass bordering rivers, big and little, and the miscellaneous jungle 

 found over the never-ending swamps of Eastern Bengal and Assam. 

 It certainly prefers reeds or grass to other kinds of cover, but is 

 often also found in cane brakes, scrub and thorn bushes in, or on the 

 borders of, marshy ground. In the height of the rains when the 

 water everywhere rises so high as to make the swamps uninhabitable 

 for anything but buffalo and water-fowl, the Kyah takes to the 

 grass fields on the higher ground, but even then never seems to 

 wander far from water. 



