?84 Notes on the Ornithology of Candahar. [Aug. 



uniform light chesnut-brown, a little mottled at tip, and each suc- 

 cessively more so to the middle ones. Crown ashy, the feathers brown- 

 ish at tip ; and cheeks and throat purer ashy, becoming albescent 

 towards the chin : ear-coverts silky-whitish, pure white anteriorly 

 towards the eyes, as are also the lores ; and above the lores, eyes, and 

 ear-coverts, is a -black streak meeting its opposite across the forehead : 

 the sides of the neck are mottled ; the breast uniform isabella-brown, 

 having a shade of lake, the feathers margined with faint russet ; and 

 those of the flanks may be described as whitish tinged with lake, the 

 larger passing into black along each lateral border, and the smaller 

 edged inwardly with chesnut-brown, and some of them with black at 

 their extreme margin : under tail-coverts pale chesnut : primaries light 

 dusky within, their outer web isabelline, with dusky bars and pencil- 

 lings. Bill and feet pale red. 



" The female is much more mottled both above and below, and is 

 devoid of the grey on the crown and throat, of the black supercilium, 

 and of the characteristic markings of the flanks : but there is a pale 

 streak from the eye along the side of the occiput. Upper parts light 

 dusky, rayed with isabelline, the darker portion of the rump feathers 

 blackish along their shafts ; the coronal feathers are similarly rayed, 

 but present a mottled appearance at their surface ; and the tertiaries 

 are prettily variegated, presenting a series of isabelline spots along 

 their middle : entire under-parts minutely mottled, paler on the throat 

 and belly, and presenting on the flanks indications of the white central 

 portion of the corresponding feathers of the male. A young chick, 

 with pale sandy-coloured down on the head, back, and under parts, 

 has the scapularies and wing-feathers minutely mottled sandy, with 

 triangular pale spots on the scapularies and tertiaries, and conspicuous 

 dark bars on the outer webs of the primaries. " 



This bird inhabits " rocky places covered here and there with brush- 

 wood, and feeds much on wild thyme. They are found in coveys, and 

 when sprung, rise with a startling noise like our Bush Quails" (Perdi- 

 cula ruhiginosa and P. cambayensis.) " Sportsmen reckon them easy 

 to kill, and it is said that they are delicious eating. The name Seesee 

 expresses their call ;"* which last statement militates against the sup- 



* Bengal Sporting Magazine. 



