30 THE EASTERN OR CHINESE FRANCOLIN. 



consists merely of a pad of bamboo leaves. They also say 

 that the bird lays as many as eight eggs. I have had the eggs 

 brought me in June. They are creamy or buffy white." 



He very kindly also sent me specimens of the eggs taken 

 on the 6th June. 



These are much like those of F. pictus ; they are of the 

 usual Francolin, more or less peg-top, shape, are dull and have 

 little gloss, and vary from cream colour to dingy olive yellow or 

 pale yellowish stone colour. They measure 1*45 and 1*5 1 by i'2. 



The females in this species seem to average slightly 

 smaller than the males, but some females are as large as 

 some males. 



The following are dimensions, &c.: — 



Length, 12*0 to 13*4; expanse, 1 8*0 to 19.3 ; wing, 5*25 to 

 6*25 ; tail from vent, 27 to 3*5 ; tarsus, v6 to i*8 ; bill from 

 gape, o*95 to ri ; weight, 10 to 14 ozs. 



In one male the beak was black ; the irides brown ; the legs 

 dull pale brownish orange ; in another the irides were reddish 

 brown, the legs a clear orange yellow. Of a female, Mr. Oates 

 notes: " The legs were a fine pale orange ; claws purplish grey; 

 bill dark horny brown ; the gape, as far as the nostrils and 

 the basal two-thirds of the lower mandible, being dark fleshy 

 yellow ; irides pale reddish hazel ; eyelids yellowish grey." 



The plate presents an admirable portrait of the male, 

 though it should be noted that the chestnut scapular patch is 

 much larger and more conspicuous in some specimens than in 

 the one figured. The comparatively large spurs of the male, 

 from o*3 to 0*4 in length, are corectly shown. 



The female, which by some oversight has not been figured, 

 wants entirely the black frontal eye-bands and mandibular 

 stripes, and has the whole head, neck and breast extremely 

 like those of some female Painted Partridges. Again, the 

 breast and lower parts are extremely like those of many 

 female Blacks. From the latter they may, like the female of 

 the Painted Partridge, be distinguished at once by the absence 

 of the nuchal chestnut demi-collar, while from the females of 

 both the other Francolins, those of the eastern species may 

 be distinguished by not having the lower back, rump and upper 

 tail-coverts barred as these have. 



Mr. Blyth always held that the Chinese and Peguan birds, 

 which he named F. phayrii (as on the plate), were separable. 

 He said : " As compared with F. chinensis the Peguan bird would 

 seem to have the long black supercilium broader, and extending 

 more across the forehead, and the rufous supercilium above it 

 narrower and paler ; also to have more developed spurs, and 



