GREY PARTRIDGE. 83 



The male is strongly spurred, generally only one spur on each 

 leg, occasionally two, the second at the base of the first. Females 

 only differ in not being spurred, and in being a trifle smaller. 

 Young birds have the chin and throat strongly tinged with 

 fulvous. 



The Grey Partridge is found throughout the greater part 

 of India, but not frequenting mountainous or forest-clad dis- 

 tricts, and it is totally wanting throughout the Malabar Coast, 

 as far at all events as N. L. 17° — 18°. It is also very rarely met 

 with north of the Ganges, although recorded as a bird of Nepal 

 by Hodgson, and it is replaced generally in Bengal by the next 

 species. It is not known in Assam nor in any of the countries 

 to the Eastward. Westward it is very abundant in Sindh, and 

 some parts of the Punjab, and it is stated to occur in Persia, 

 as Mr. Blyth informed me, where known as * JiruftV 



It frequents alike bush -jungle, and cultivated lands, being often 

 found in gardens and compounds ; and very generally near villages, 

 concealing itself in hedge-rows and thickets. It associates in 

 coveys of varied number, from five to fifteen, is often very 

 difficult to flush, running for a great distance, and with 

 amazing speed, and taking refuge in thick bushes and hedges, 

 whence driven with difficulty. When flushed, it rises with a 

 loud whirr, flies very strongly, but does not take long flights. 

 It frequently perches on low trees and shrubs, and on the branches 

 of thick Euphorbia hedges. Its call is a peculiar loud shrill cry, 

 and has, not unaptly, been compared to the word Pateela-pateela- 

 jmteela, quickly repeated, but preceded by a single note uttered 

 two or three times, each time with a higher intonation, till it 

 gets, as it were, the key note of its call. 



This Partridge breeds, chiefly in the dry weather, from February 

 to May or June, the hen-bird laying usually eight or ten eggs, of 

 a cream or stone colour, under a hedge-row or thick bush. One 

 writer in the Bengal Spoilt. Review says, from twelve to eighteen 

 eggs, greyish speckled with red and brown. It occasionally, 

 it is stated, breeds in grain fields, and many nests are said to be 

 destroyed in reaping the crops. " The young," says the same writer, 

 u soon get strong on the wing, and attempt to call when only five 



