GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 147 



one bird on the eastern slopes of Sher-ka-danda, 

 close to Naini Tal, at an elevation of 7,000 feet. 

 No specimens have turned up since. It seems to be 

 a migratory bird, arriving in winter, although its 

 small wings look ill-adapted for a journey of any 

 length. It goes in single pairs or coveys, and keeps 

 close to cover in grass jungle or brushwood, being 

 almost impossible to flush without a dog. Its flight 

 is heavy, slow, and short ; its food, grass seeds. 

 The call is a shrill whistle. Anyone coming across 

 these birds again should do his best to secure a living 

 pair or two, and either breed from them himself — 

 which could probably be done in the hUls in a well- 

 grassed run — or send them Home to the London 

 Zoological Gardens or down to the Calcutta Gardens. 

 In this way eggs might be obtained, whereas we are 

 likely to wait a long time for them if we look to the 

 discovery of a nest in the wild state in the case of 

 such a rare and erratic bird as this one appears to 

 be. 



The true Grouse (Tetraonincs) though none of them are found 

 in Indian limits, are most important game-birds in Northern 

 and Central Asia. They differ from Pheasants and Partridges 

 chiefly in having the toes either feathered or, if naked, as is more 

 often the case, fringed with narrow scales, so as to increase the 

 bearing-surface of the foot. They never have spurs, their legs 

 are always more or less feathered, and so is the covering of the 

 nostrils ; and in all Old- World species there is a red comb over 

 the eye, greatly distended in the males in the breeding-season. 

 The wings are rather longer than is usual in the Pheasant family, 

 and Grouse fly better than most of these ; but there is so little 

 difference in general structure and habits that the separation of 

 the Grouse as a distinct family from the Pheasants and Partridge 

 is not justifiable, though usual in books. Several species of 

 ■Grouse have hybridised with members of the Pheasant group , 

 whereas hybrids between truly distinct families of birds are quite 

 unknown. 



Of the forest-grouse, which perch much, and have the legs 

 feathered, but the toes bare and fringed with scales, Asia has 

 the following species : — 



