Io8 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



ing from an ant-hill. There is a pretty native 

 legend which renders the call as " Subhan, teri 

 Jiudrat,''' but I have never been able to fit these 

 pious words to it, or any others. The Black Par- 

 tridge breeds from May to August, most birds 

 nesting in June ; the eggs are fairly numerous, six 

 lo ten, and drab in colour. 



The Painted Partridge or Francolin. 



FrancoUnus pictus. Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, 

 Vol. IV, p. 137. 



Native names : — Titar, kala titar, Mahratta ; 

 Kakhera kodi, Telugu. 



In this species neither sex possesses spurs, and 

 the cock and hen are much alike, though not indis- 

 tinguishable. It is rather smaller than the Black 

 Partridge. The cock is not unlike the male Black 

 Partridge, above, but very different below, being 

 so heavily spotted with white that there is only 

 enough black to separate the spots ; there is no 

 chestnut collar round the neck, but the ej^ebrows, 

 face, and throat are chestnut. In the hen the 

 throat is whitish, and the bars on the back are 

 buff, and wider apart than in the cock. The bUl 

 is blackish, the eyes dark, and the legs orange-red. 



This bird occupies a territory south of the Black 

 Partridges, the southern limit of that bird being 

 the northern frontier of the painted species ; this 

 becomes rarer towards the south, and is absent 

 irom the Malabar Coast, south of Bombay, as also 

 irom Mysore. Nor is it found in the Peninsula, 

 south of Coimbatore, although occurring in Ceylon 

 ■on some of the hUls west and south of Newera 



