AMMOPEBDIX. 433 



nullahs at their base, but is rarely seen far out on the plains. They 

 commence to breed about the end of March, or early in April. 

 There is no nest ; the eggs are deposited on the ground in a de- 

 pression under a bush. I have never found more than eight eggs ; 

 but the Afghans assert that they often lay 15 or 20." 



The eggs vary a good deal in size and shape, as well as in type 

 of colouring, but typically they are somewhat elongated ovals, a 

 good deal pointed towards the small end. Pegtop and sphero- 

 conoidal varieties occur, but these forms are the exceptions in 

 this species, while they are the rule in those of the three species 

 of Erancolin. The type of colouring too varies : in one type the 

 ground-colour is pale cafe-au-lait, thickly speckled and spotted with 

 purplish, reddish, or yellowish brown; in another the ground- 

 colour is a pale creamy white or pale isabelline, and the eggs are 

 pretty thickly blotched with pale purplish pink, the spots and 

 blotches being occasionally slightly in relief, as if drops of white 

 paint tinged with purple had been dropped on the egg. The eggs 

 are moderately glossy, more so perhaps than in the Common Fran- 

 colin, less so than in the Grey Partridge. The common type is 

 that first described, and in some eggs the specklings are so exces- 

 sively minute that the eggs, looked at from a Lttle distance, appear 

 a uniform somewhat brownish cafe-au-lait. 



The eggs vary in length from 1-55 to 1-9, and in breadth from 

 1'15 to 1'3; but the average of seventy-six eggs is 1'68 by V25. 



Ammoperdix bonhami (G. E. Gray). The Seesee Partridge. 



Ammoperdix honhami (G. S. Gr,), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 567; Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. % E. no. 821. 



The Seesee breeds alike in the Salt Eange and throughout the 

 rocky hills that westwards bound our Empire, from Attock to the 

 Gulf of Oman. 



This pretty little species is very common and tame in the Salt 

 Eange; a couple of dozens may be seen in a morning's walk, and 

 if people are set to catch them large numbers are brought in. 

 They are most generally seen running on the bare rocks or pecking 

 about the droppings of cattle on the mountain-paths ; but at 

 Tobur, — some 2000 feet high, the rainy-season residence of the 

 miners, who during the rest of the year reside in the Khewrit 

 Gorge (some 700 feet above the sea) and \^ork the neighbouring 

 Mayo Salt-mines, — I saw several pairs running about on thp flat 

 roofs of the empty houses. The males may often be seen perched 

 on some rocky point ; and the female in the spring, though less 

 commonly seen in exposed positions, will always be found close to 

 her mate. They run very rapidly and glidingly over the roi-kiest 

 ground, rise pretty readily and fly sniartly, ahvays if possible 

 down-hill. Both in gait and flight they remind one much of the 

 Chukor. 



Towards the end of March and early in April they may be seen 



VOL. III. ' 28 



