PERDIX PICTA, (nobis). 

 Painted Partridge. 



PLATE L. 



Mas. 



Fcem. P. genis auricularibusque ferrugineis, corpore subtus, albo-nigroque laete ma- 

 culato ; dorso alisque fusco-castaneis, lineis lorigitudinalibus maculisque flaves- 

 centibus, uropygio tectricibusque caudae nigro alboque striatis, crisso ferrugineo- 

 castanea, rectricibus nigris ad basin albo striatis. 



W e received this beautiful species, together with several other rare and 

 valuable skins, a few months since, from the neighbourhood of Bangalore 

 in India, through the exertions of a valued friend and correspondent *, 

 whose zeal during his residence in that district enabled him to collect a 

 great variety of the indigenous birds of the country. We have not been 

 able to identify this with any of the Partridges hitherto described as na- 

 tives of India ; but being a female, it is possible that it may belong to some 

 one of which a description of the male alone has been recorded. As we 

 cannot, however, under present circumstances, verify this fact, we have 

 ventured to give it a specific designation, and that in accordance with the 

 name written on the ticket with which it came to us, viz. " The Female 

 Painted Partridge." It belongs to the true Partridges, possessing all the 

 essential characters of that genus, as now restricted, and with propriety se- 

 parated from the Francolins, on the one hand, and from the American 

 Partridges, or the genus Ortyx, on the other. Our figure is slightly re- 

 duced, being in the proportion of about eight-tenths of the natural size. 

 The bill is blackish-brown : the crown of the head brown, with the mar- 

 gins of the feathers yellowish-white. The face, region of the eyes, and au- 

 riculars, pale brownish-orange, the hinder part of the neck pale buff, the 



* Lieutenant J. Atherton, 13th. Light Dragoons, since deceased on his passage to England 

 for the benefit of his health. 



G 



