562 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



edgings ; the neck all round pale ferruginous ; the upper part 

 of the back and scapulars deep brown, the feathers edged 

 laterally with creamy white, and this gradually passing into 

 the markings of the wings, which are chesnut with black bands ; 

 the lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts are beautifully 

 marked with undulating lines of black and white; tail deep 

 brown, the feathers finely cross-barred at their base ; beneath, 

 the throat is white, with longitudinal dark lines ; the whole of 

 the rest of the lower surface variegated black and white, each 

 feather being white, with two dark cross-bands, and the shaft and 

 tip black ; these dark bands gradually narrow towards the vent ; 

 under tail-coverts chesnut, the feathers of the flanks and sides of 

 the rump are tinged with pale ferruginous. 



Bill blackish; irides dark brown; legs yellow red. Length 12 

 inches; wing 6 ; tail 2| ; tarsus If. Weight 11 to 13 oz. 



The female differs in having a somewhat ferruginous tinge 

 beneath, and in the throat being more or less rufous. 



The Painted Partridge may be said to take the place of the 

 Black in Central and part of Southern India. It is found 

 throughout Bundelkund and the Saugor and Nerbudda territories, 

 and thence south through Nagpore and the Deccan, to about N. 

 L. 15°, gradually becoming more scarce southwards. I have 

 heard of its occasional occurrence near Bangalore still further 

 south, but where the land is higher and the climate cooler. West, 

 it extends into Candeish, and perhaps Guzerat, but is not known 

 on the Malabar Coast; and eastwards, it is found throughout 

 Chota Nagpore and adjacent lands to the more open parts of the 

 Northern Circars, as far as Cuttack, but far more rare there than 

 in the west of' the Peninsula. I have found it most abundant in 

 the Deccan near Jalna, and at Mhow ; less so in Saugor, Nagpore 

 and Hyderabad. 



Like its northern congener, it delights in grassy plains and 

 fields, but more affects open, dry, and raised plains with scattered 

 bushes, than the low-lying, damper meadows that the Black 

 delights in. It is always, when the grain is ripe, as well as at 

 other times not unfrequently, to be found in wheat fields and other 

 cultivated lands, and occasionally in open and grassy blades in 



