14 THE BLACK PARTRIDGE OR COMMON FRANCOLIN. 



Probably, being a ground bird, the young are killed by stoats, 

 jackals, and other vermin, and the mother is not of sufficient 

 size to defend them. It seems to have a second brood some- 

 times. 



" It remains entirely on the ground, as a rule, except the cock 

 when calling, when he will at times get on to a stump or ant 

 hill ; but up the Tonse Valley, and in the Rama Serai, in Native 

 Garhwal, I have seen them high up in chir trees (Pinus 

 longifolia.) 



" From its breeding so slowly it is easily shot off, and I have 

 known a place almost cleared in one season. The Western 

 Dun has been served in that way. Formerly 25 brace could be 

 bagged there, but now, if a man flushes five brace in a day, he 

 has done well. 



" All sportsmen who like Black Partridge shooting should 

 kill all vermin they see about its haunts. 



" This bird gets tame readily, and even when caught full 

 grown, will eat the day it is caught. It affords some of the 

 finest sport of all small game, and with steady dogs one may 

 have grand shooting. It may be found in all crops, but 

 especially in cotton fields freshly sown, wheat, rice and mustard, 

 and in wild hemp. It runs a good deal at times, but will lay 

 like a stone if headed ; it is never found far from grass jungles. 



" Some hens have spurs of the same size and shape as the 

 cocks. 



" It is kept tame by the natives, and used for the capture of 

 wild ones in the breeding season. The mode of using it is to 

 put it in a cage out near wild ones in the pairing season and 

 to set snares round the cage. The tame ones then call up the 

 wild ones, but only cocks are caught in this way, and the tame 

 one must be a young one reared by hand, as if caught when old 

 it will not call. 



" Netting is largely used to capture this bird, and on one 

 occasion I wanted some birds to stock a bit of forest, and a 

 man caught two score of birds in a very short time. 



" I never heard of this bird being used for fighting ; it is merely 

 kept as a call bird or as a pet." 



ALTHOUGH in the autumn and the early part of the cold 

 weather individuals of this species, young birds especially, 

 straggle considerable distances from the jungles that constitute 

 their homes, still, broadly speaking, we may say that the Black 

 Partridge is a permanent resident and breeds wherever it occurs. 

 The only thing approaching migration that I have observed 

 in the case of this species, is the upward move which many of 

 them make in the Himalayas and other lesser ranges in spring. 

 In the winter I doubt if many Francolins would anywhere be 

 found above an elevation of 3,000 feet, while during the summer, 



