114 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



or more white eggs on the ground. Their call is 

 a low soft whistle, and they are unobtrusive birds 

 altogether ; yet they are a well represented group 

 with us, numbering no less than six species, none 

 of which, however, are found in Southern India or 

 Ceylon. An interesting point about these par- 

 tridges is that they possess a row of small separate 

 bones along the upper edge of the orbit, a sort of 

 bony eyebrow in fact. No other bird of this family 

 possesses them, although they occur in some other 

 groups, the Trumpeters {Psophiidcs) of South Amer- 

 ica and the partridge-like Tinamous (Tinamidce) 

 of the same continent. The general plan of colour- 

 ation of the Indian Arboricolas is very similar, all 

 having olive-brown backs, mottled with black, 

 and grey flanks boldly spotted with white, and 

 usually with chestnut edgings. 



The Common Hill- Partridge. 



Arboricola torqueola, Fauna Brit. Ind Birds 

 Vol. IV, p. 125. 



Native names :—Peura, Ban-tiiar, Hindi, 

 of Kumaun and Nepal ; Roli, Ram 

 chukru, in Chamba ; Kaindal, Kangra ; Ko- 

 hum-pho, Lepcha. 



This is the only species of Arboricola in which 

 the sexes are different. The male has the head 

 bright-chestnut above and of a paler shade of the 

 same colour over and behind the ear coverts ; the 

 eyebrows, sides of the head, and throat are black 

 with white edgings at the sides, and there is a 

 white moustache -streak. The breast is grey 



