1 6 THE BLACK PARTRIDGE OR COMMON FRANCOLIN. 



had been once cleared during the preceding months, and I was 

 re-clearing it to plant tea — a large body of coolies were hoeing, 

 but in spite of the noise these made, the female remained on 

 the nest until a man almost touched her, when she flew off and 

 disclosed the eggs." 



Typically, the eggs are what I should call sphero-conoidal in 

 shape, that is to say, broad blunt cones based on hemispheres. 

 In colour, at times, and in shape, as a rule, they closely resemble 

 specimens of the eggs of our Common English Pheasant (P. 

 colchicus.) They are of course smaller, but by no means so much 

 so as the relative difference in the sizes of the two birds would 

 lead one to expect. They are moderately glossy and perfectly 

 unspotted, and the colour varies from a slightly greenish to a 

 brownish fawn colour, or in some, as I ought perhaps to call it, 

 stone colour. Some of the eggs might perhaps be best described 

 as drab coloured, while occasionally a clutch, such as one I have 

 recently obtained, is a rich brownish cafe au lait colour. 



The eggs vary greatly in size — from 1*36 to vS in length and 

 from i*i 8 to 1*38 in breadth, but the average of 70 eggs is 

 1-56 by 1*28. 



But if the eggs vary greatly in size, so do the birds. Com- 

 paring the giants of the moist, river-bed grass and tamarisk 

 jungles with the dwarfs of the high uplands and dry scrub jungle, 

 one could scarcely accept them as belonging to the same species. 

 I have shot adult males in good condition in the Gurgaon 

 scrub weighing only 10 ozs. (though they average about 13), 

 and I have shot others in the Kadar of the Ganges in the 

 Meerut district, weighing fully 20 ozs. 



The birds of Asia Minor are supposed to be larger than our 

 Indian ones, and possibly they may average larger, but I have 

 measured Indian specimens quite as large as those from Anatolia, 

 of which Dresser gives the measurements : — 



Males. — Length, 1275 to 14*8 ; expanse, 1875 to 217 ; wing, 

 575 to 67 ; tail from vent, 3*45 to 4*4 ; tarsus, v6 to 2'0 ; bill 

 from gape, i*o to 1*27 ; weight, 10 to 20 ozs. 



Females. — Length, 12*25 to 14*0 ; expanse, 18*5 to 21 '6 ; wing, 

 57 to 67 ; tail from vent, 3-38 to 4*1 ; tarsus, 1*5 to 2*0 ; bill 

 from gape, 0*9 to 1*19 ; weight, 8 to 17 ozs. 



These are the extremes of a very large series of measure- 

 ments, and somewhat obscure the fact, that in each locality, 

 and dealing with adults only, the females do average perceptibly 

 smaller and lighter than the males. 



The irides are deep brown ; the bill, in the male, black, pale 

 horny at the extreme tip of the upper mandible. In the female 

 dusky brown, tip of upper mandible paler ; gape and base of 

 lower mandible whitish or fleshy ; the legs and feet vary from 

 reddish brown to orange and orange red, and are duller in the 

 female ; the claws horny black ; the spurs of the male horn 



