FRANCOLINUS PICTUS. 745 



opposite spots situated near the margins of the webs ; on the breast and lower flanks these markings change into 

 bars ; under tail-coverts dark cinnamon-rufous ; under wing-coverts fulvous, barred with dark brown, greater 

 series light brown. 



Female (Wellemade, Ceylon). Length 11*5 to 11-75 inches ; wing 5"3 to 5-7; tail 2-9 to 3-1 ; tarsus 1-6 ; middle toe 

 and claw 1-3 ; bill to gape 1*0 to 1-1. 



Iris yellow-brown ; bill brownish, the under mandible fleshy, with the tip dusky ; legs and feet yellowish red ; claws 

 dusky. 



Lores, face, and ear-coverts tawny rufous, extending high over the eye ; centre of forehead, head, and nape brown, 

 narrowly edged with tawny ; chin and throat buffy white ; centre of the hind neck dark brown, the feathers 

 broadly edged with buff ; lower part of the hind neck with white marginal spots, lengthening out into streaks on 

 the interscapular region ; back blackish brown, crossed with narrow pale wavy marks, which increase in breadth 

 and become white on the tail-coverts ; wing-coverts barred and margined near the tips of the feathers with tawny 

 yellow ; quills not so black as in the male, barred with rufous tawny ; the tertials with spear-shaped cross marks 

 and edges of yellowish buff ; under surface whitish ; fore neck marked with arrow-shaped bars, and the rest of the 

 underparts, except the belly and vent, crossed with broad irregular bands of black, the lower flanks tinged with 

 buff ; abdomen greyish white ; under tail-coverts as in the male. 



The female differs from the male in the less conspicuous marking of the hind neck and the interscapular region, and in 

 the somewhat different character of the markings of the chest and fore neck. 



Young. Immature birds have the legs and feet duskier than the adult. 



The subterminal lateral stripes of the feathers of the back, scapulars, and tertials are paler, and the throat and under 

 surface whiter ; the rufous of the under tail-coverts is not so dark as in the adult, and is barred with black. 



Obs. I have not been able to compare a large series of continental birds with my Ceylonese specimens, and therefore 

 I am unable to say whether the differences I have observed in the two races are constant. As regards the males, 

 I am, I regret to say, not in a position to offer any opinion, as all my efforts to procure a male were unsuccessful, 

 and my friends who promised to help me in the matter have not as yet sent me any specimens. The few birds 

 which I shot on two occasions were all females or young birds. Females from Lidia, however, though resembling 

 their insular relatives in most respects, differ in being more rufescent beneath, and the bars on the chest are closer 

 and not so pointed at the centre ; the markings on the hind neck resemble more those of the male than in the 

 Ceylon bird, being more in the form of spots than longitudinal bands. 



I submitted my specimens to Captain C. H. Marshall, one of our greatest authorities on Indian game-birds, when he was 

 lately in England ; and his opinion was that, though differing in these slight respects, they could not well be speci- 

 fically separated from the Indian form. A comparison of the males, however, is necessary before we can be certain 

 about the matter ; and should the Ceylon race eventually prove distinct, I would propose for its title the name 

 watsoni, after Col. Watson, one of the oldest sportsmen in Ceylon, who was perhaps the first ever to procure 

 the bird. 



It appears that this species and the Black Partridge (F. vulgaris) interbreed in the north-west of Lidia. Captain Butler 

 describes hybrid specimens, which he obtained in the Deesa district, in the seventh volume of ' Stray Feathers ' 

 (1877, p. 211) ; and one of them I have had the opportunity of seeing, owing to the kindness of Captain Marshall. 

 It has the centres of the frontal feathers, a broad line passing from the nostril through the eye and down the 

 sides of the head, the chin, together with the tips of the throat-feathers and the ground-colour of the chest and 

 breast jet-black; the lower hind-neck feathers are jet-black, with the spots quite circular, and the abdomen and 

 vent more rufescent than in F. pictus. 



The male F. vulgaris has the throat, face, neck, chest, breast, and most of the flank-feathers, together with a broad 

 eye-stripe, jet-black ; cheeks and ear-coverts white, and round the neck a collar of chestnut ; back and rump barred 

 black ; under tail-coverts chestnut. The female is not unlike F. pictus in general appearance, but has the chestnut 

 collar, whereby it can at once be distinguished. 



Distribution. — The Painted Partridge inhabits the patna-hills which form the upland basin lying between 

 the western slopes of the Nuwara-Eliya range and Badulla in the one direction, and the Udu-pusselawa hills 

 and the Haputale range in the other. It is also found about Haputale and Haldamulla, and on the subsidiary 

 patna-hills between Lemastota and Wellaway. Its range, therefore, is extraordinarily restricted, as far as we 

 know at present. In the last-mentioned district Mr. Bligh has observed it ; and it is very probable that it may 

 extend westward into the hilly country which forms the elevated grassy and openly-timbered plateau situated 



