Genus ORTYGORNIS. 

 Bill wide and lengthened, the tip well produced over the under mandible. Nostrils basal 

 and oval. Wings rather pointed ; the 3rd and 4th quills the longest ; tertials equal to the 

 primaries. Tail of 12 feathers, moderately long, slightly exceeding the coverts. Tarsus stout, 

 longer than the middle toe and claw, and armed with a large spur in the male ; lateral toes 

 equal. 



ORTYGOENIS PONDICERIANA. 



(THE GREY PARTRIDGE.) 



Tetrao pondicerianus, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 760 (1788). 



Perdix orientalis, J. E. Gray & Hardw. 111. Inch Zool. pi. 56 (1830-32). 



Perdix ponticeriana (Gmel.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 252 (1849). 



Francolinvs ponticerianus (Gmel.), Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 131(1852); Layard, Ann. 

 & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 107. 



Ortygornis ponticeriana (Gmel.), Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 568 (1864); Blyth, Ibis, 1867, 

 p. 158; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 469 ; Blanford, Zool. Persia, p. 273 (1872) ; Adam, 

 Str. Feath. 1873, p. 392 ; Ball, ibid. 1874, p. 427, et 1875, p. 209 ; Hume, Nests and 

 Eggs, iii. p. 542 (1875); Butler & Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 6; Fairbank, t. c. 

 p. 262; Hume, t. c. p. 459; Davidson & Wender, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 87 ; Ball, t. c. 

 p. 225. 



Ortygornis pondicerianus, Hume (List B. of India), Str. Feath. 1879, p. 111. 



Francoliv a rabat, Temm. PI. Col. 213; The Pondicherry Partridge, Kelaart; The Bed- 

 legged also Jaffna Partridge, Europeans in North of Ceylon. Titar, Hind. ; Gora-titar, 

 of some ; Kawunzu, Telugu ; Koudari, Tarn. (Jerdon) ; Jirufti, in Persia (Blyth) ; 

 Kowthari, Ceylonese Tamils. 



Oussa-watua, Sinhalese. 



Adult male. Length 12-0 to 12-3 inches ; wing 5-5 to 5-8; tail 3-2 to 3'4 ; tarsus H to l'S ; middle toe 1-2 ; hind 

 toe and claw 0-55 ; spur 0*6 ; bill to gape 0-9. 



Female. Wing 5*3 to 5-6 inches ; tail 3 - ; tarsus 1-5. 



Iris light, hazel ; bill, upper mandible dark brown, its edge and the lower mandible flesh-colour ; legs and feet dull 

 red ; soles greyish, claws brown. 



Crown and nape olive-brown ; forehead rufous, passing with a paler hue over the eye in a broad supercilium : cheeks 

 and throat concolorous with the eye-stripe ; lores whitish ; chin and a stripe passing round the rufous gorget 

 white ; the latter edged with black across the throat ; ear-coverts dark chestnut ; general colour of the hind neck, 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts greyish brown, crossed with buff dark-margined bands, the grey portions 

 patched with chestnut on the interseapulary region and back, but not on the upper tail-coverts; the scapulars and 

 wing-coverts are marked in much the same way as the back, but the rufous-chestnut colour almost entirely 

 overcomes the grey except near the tips of the feathers, and the white bars run along the shaft and are more 

 conspicuously edged with black ; primaries and secondaries pale grey-brown, the secondaries and primarv-coverts 

 barred with buff, and the primaries with an external margin of the same near the base ; . tail deep chestnut, with 

 a pale tip and a subterminal patch of black, the two centre feathers greyish brown, crossed with wavy mottled 



