ORTTGOENIS PONDICEEIANA. 749 



bands of buff; beneath whitish, washed with rufescent on the chest, each feather crossed with from four to six 

 narrow wavy bars of black, which on the centre of the chest take a crescentic course, and on the flanks become 

 broader ; on the upper flanks and sides of the breast there is a chestnut patch along the margins of many of the 

 feathers ; under tail-coverts rufous-buff, with narrow wavy bars of black ; under wing rufescent white, barred with 

 pale brown. 

 Females appear to have the bars of the under surface more crescentic than males ; but I do not know whether this 

 character is constant, as I did not examine a sufficient number of this sex. The chestnut side-patches are almost 

 absent in immature birds. 



Obs. The few examples in the national collection which I have been able to compare with my series from Ceylon are 

 from the north of India, and present some slight points of difference to insular birds. The cross rays of the 

 under surface are not crescentic, as they are on the centre of the breast in Ceylon specimens, but are in the form 

 of transverse bars ; and in a Kattiawar example there are scarcely any markings on the under tail-coverts, which 

 are almost uniform rufous, with just a trace of barring on the shorter feathers ; there is likewise less of the red 

 coloration on the scapulars and wing-coverts. This is, however, a variable character in our insular birds, and is 

 probably the same in continental. Three examples measure 5'4, 5*5, and 5 - 6 inches in the wing ; tarsus 1'6. 

 If my memory serves me aright, caged specimens brought from Tuticorin to Colombo for sale were identical with 

 island birds ; and I have no doubt that the species is one which is subject to slight variation in the matter of the 

 marking of the under surface. Some examples I have seen from India have the under tail-coverts quite as much 

 marked as in Ceylonese. 



Distribution. — The Grey Partridge is confined to the extreme north of Ceylon and the north-west coast 

 as far south as Puttalam. It extends down the coast as far as Battutoya; but about Chilaw I did not 

 meet with it, and found from inquiry that it did not inhabit that district. It is very numerous on some of 

 the islands off Jaffna, and likewise to the south of Pooneryn Point. In this neighbourhood there is a place 

 called Kowtheri-munoi (Partridge Point), where Mr. W. Murray tells me as many as twenty brace have been 

 shot in the morning before breakfast. All down the coast from this locality to Pomp-aripu it is more or 

 less abundant, and in the Erinativoe Islands I found it plentiful. In Manaar Island it is the same, and 

 beyond our limits in Ramisserum it is equally common. At Aripu Mr. Holdsworth states that it was always 

 very abundant. Mr. Parker informs me that it is very abundant on the coast-plains to the north of Puttalam. 



From time to time while in Colombo I met with it in the cinnamon-gardens, in which locality they 

 always frequented cue particular spot. These birds, I imagine, had been turned loose, as numbers of 

 Partridges are brought in cages about February from Cochin, Tuticorin, and other South-Indian ports. In 

 1870 I obseiwed a single bird which frequented some bushes beneath the north front of the Fort at Galle ; 

 but this individual had evidently escaped or been turned loose, as I never saw or heard of another in the 

 south of Ceylon. 



I am not aware how far south of Elephant Pass this Partridge ranges on the east coast ; but I believe it 

 has been met with to the north of Mullaitivu. It does not extend inland in any part of the island. 



It is found, according to Jerdon, throughout the greater part of India, not frequenting mountainous or 

 forest districts, and totally wanting throughout the Malabar coast. Though recorded from Nepal by Hodgson, 

 it is rarely met with, says the author of the ' Birds of India/ north of the Ganges ; but I imagine it is found 

 on the plains of Oude and other level districts, eschewing, as Mr. Hume remarks ('Nests and Eggs'), the 

 humid tracts of Lower Bengal, and the Dhoons and Terais that skirt the bases of the Himalayas. Mr. Ball records 

 it from the Rajmehal bills, Manbhum, Hazaribagh, and Lobardugga, and remarks that it is rare in the extreme 

 west of Chota Nagpur ; he bkewise found it in the higher valleys of the Suliman Hills. Thence northwards 

 it probably extends into Afghanistan, as it ranges as far as Persia, throughout the south-eastern portion of 

 which country Mr. Blanford found it. Its extreme western limit, writes Major St. John, in Persia appears 

 to be Lar. It is also common in Baluchistan. 



Returning, however, to the Indian Empire, with which we have more particularly to deal, we find it common 

 in open and cultivated districts throughout the entire north-western region, although, according to Captain 

 Butler, it occurs sparingly in the hills. Further south in the Deccan it is, according to the Rev. Dr. Fairbank, 

 universally distributed, and is likewise said to be common by Messrs. Davidson and Wender. In the eastern 



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