THE PAINTED PARTRIDGE OR SOUTHERN FRANCOLIN. 23 



garden or plantation, and had no grass reserve within two miles of 

 it, but a nalla fringed with Babul jungle ran through the whole 

 village land, and along this nalla there were numbers of Paint- 

 ed Partridges. 



" In the Panch Mahals I heard this Partridge calling in con- 

 siderable numbers during the rains, and it is probably pretty 

 common there." 



".In the eastern portions of the Poona and Satara districts 

 small patches of sugarcane in the neighbourhood of nallas 

 are," as Mr. Vidal writes, "the places,/^ excellence, in which to 

 find and shoot the Southern Francolin, and here, with good dogs 

 to flush them out of the cane (a rather troublesome matter 

 without dogs), they afford excellent sport." 



And equally in low scrub jungle on broken and rocky ground, 

 and in standing crops in the neighbourhood of this, especially 

 in the immediate vicinity of perennial streams, in parts of Gwa- 

 lior, Jhansi, Narsinghpur, Jubbulpore, &c, very pretty sport 

 may be had. They run more than the Blacks, but after running 

 some distance, generally conclude to squat, and then lie well ; 

 but to ensure a good bag in such situations, a long line, several 

 guns, and dogs to recover winged birds, are necessary. 



They are as easy to shoot as an English Partridge, but they 

 fly faster and take a harder blow to kill outright than the Black. 



The call of the male, heard at all seasons, morning and even- 

 ing, but only rarely during the autumn and the early part of 

 the cold weather, is quite distinct from that of the Common 

 Francolin, although of somewhat the same character. People 

 syllablize it in a variety of ways ( ChU-kee-kerray — Tee-tee-teeturay, 

 &c.) } but it has a pitch and ring not within the compass of the 

 unaided human voice, although with a cut reed and a lota of water 

 it may be fairly imitated. They begin calling even earlier 

 in the morning, and call on till later in the evening, than do the 

 Common Francolin. 



The food of the Painted Partridge is much the same as that 

 of the Black — insects and grubs, grain and seeds, and tender 

 shoots and buds of grasses and weeds of many kinds, constitute 

 its normal diet, the larvae and eggs of white ants being special 

 favourites ; but in the neighbourhood of villages it is often, like 

 its northern congener, a foul feeder, and is never, I think, so 

 good a bird for the table. 



Like the Black, it is generally to be found in pairs ; very 

 rarely two hens and one cock may be met with together appar- 

 ently belonging to the same party, and possibly it is not 

 so strictly monogamous as is the Common Francolin. It is 

 never seen in anything approaching a covey, except during the 

 autumn, when an old pair and four or five nearly full-grown 

 young birds may at times be flushed almost en masse. 



It seems to work hard for its food, and you may watch it in 

 young wheat, scratching about in the ground vigorously, or 



