GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. IO3 



This bird is found almost all over India, but it 

 avoids swamps and thick forest, and does not 

 usually ascend hills to a higher level than 1,500 feet. 

 It is absent from Lower Bengal and from the 

 Malabar coast south of Bombay, and it is not found 

 east of India ; Westwards, however, it ranges as 

 far as the Persian Gulf. 



It is most abundant where cultivation is inter- 

 spersed with bush jungle, and its harsh shrill call, 

 beginning with single notes, and continued in 

 tri-syllables, is familiar to everyone, for it is as 

 well known in towns as in the country, being a 

 favourite cage-bird with the natives. Some of 

 them like the note, but the great reason for keep- 

 ing partridges is the sport they afford as fighting 

 birds. So pugnacious are they, that I have seen 

 two birds let out of their cages near a lawn which 

 had no idea of " going to grass," but flew at each 

 other straightway ; and they are commonly caught 

 by pTitting out a tame cock on a cage garnished 

 with nooses, in which his wild assailants are 

 caught. To make him call and challenge them, 

 he is blown upon, an act which excites him to the 

 greatest fury. Many birds also, at Calcutta at 

 any rate, are brought in as mere chicks, and reared 

 by hand. It may be that such specimens are the 

 very tame ones one sees following their owners 

 like so many little dogs, when let out; but pos- 

 sibly this partridge, like the chukor, can easily 

 be tamed when adult. Double-spurred birds now 

 and then occur, and are naturally preferred by 

 the natives for fighting, but I have never seen such 

 an one. 



For ordinary sporting purposes, amongst Eu- 

 ropeans, this partridge is not much esteemed ; it 



