PTBROCLID^ PTEEOCLUEUS 193 



thighs and abdomen yellowish-buff; across the breast a narrow 

 white band bordered with rich chocolate-brown ; tarsus, feathered 

 to the base of the toes, pale buff. 



Iris dark brown, bill bluish- slate, feet and claws lavender. 



Length in flesh 10-75 ; in skin 10-0 ; wing 6-25 ; tail 3-30 ; 

 culmen -50 ; tarsus -80. (This appears to be a rather small bird 

 compared with that one the dimensions of which are given in the 

 British Museum Catalogue). 



The female, which differs considerably from the male, is streaked 

 and mottled with black and on the shoulders with dark brown and 

 white as well ; wings and tail as in the male, the central feathers 

 being elongated and attenuated ; below buffy-brown, the chin and 

 throat with minute spots, the breast with brown streaks and the 

 lower breast with transverse bars of black ; abdomen, under tail- 

 coverts and tarsal feathers pale buffy, unspotted ; soft parts as in 

 the male. 



Length in flesh 11-25 ; in skin 105 ; wing 6-5. 



A young male resembles the female, but the top of the head and 

 back are more rufous and more barred with black ; below, the throat 

 is paler and the breast more rufous than in the adult male. 



Distribution. — The Namaqua Partridge, as it is generally called, 

 is found throughout the drier and more desert portion of South 

 Africa from the Karoo and Namaqualand to the Cunene, but not in 

 Natal, the eastern Transvaal or Mashonaland. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony — Malmesbury, Tulbagh,, 

 Worcester, December, Orange River, near Upington, November, 

 December (S. A. Mus.), Aliwal N., May (Whitehead), East London, 

 rare (Wood), King William's Town district, rare (Pym), Deelfontein, 

 resident (Seimund), Kimberley, June (Brit. Mus.) ; Orange Eiver 

 Colony — Kroonstad, September (Symonds), Vredefort Eoad (Hamil- 

 ton) ; Transvaal — Potchefstroom, August, November, Marico (Ayres), 

 Irene, November (Shortridge) ; Bechuanaland— Kalahari (Fleck), 

 Lake Ngami (Bryden) ; German South-west Africa — throughout 

 (Fleck and Andersson). 



Habits. — This bird is found in great abundance all over the 

 Karoo and throughout the dry country ; it appears to be a resident 

 in some parts and a partial migrant in others ; it is spread all over 

 the country during the day, generally in pairs or small parties, 

 searching for its food, which consists chiefly of grass and other 

 seeds. In the morning just about sunrise and in the evening just 

 before sunset it resorts to pools and rivers, circling round in large 



13 VOL. IV. 



