10 THE BLACK PARTRIDGE OR COMMON FRANCOLIN. 



we may conclude that in Northern Aracan it is equally unknown. 

 In Pegu and Independent Burma, and further east, it is replaced 

 by the nearly-allied Eastern or Chinese Francolin. 



Throughout the eastern districts enumerated, and throughout 

 the enormous tract lying north of the imaginary line sketched 

 above, the Black Partridge is to be found in suitable localities, 

 and this not only in the plains and lesser chains of hills, but in all 

 the lower outer ranges of the Himalayas,* and in the river 

 valleys running far into these, up to elevations, at any rate in 

 summer, of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet. 



Of course they are birds of well watered or more or less 

 jungly tracts ; and in the semi-desert wastesf of Rajputana 

 they are all but unknown, and almost equally so in the dry 

 level plains of the Doab and Southern Rohilkhand and Oudh, 

 except along the valleys of the larger rivers. 



Outside our limits, the Francolin occurs in the better-wooded 

 portions of Southern Beluchistan and in Afghanistan. 



The specimen brought from the latter by Hutton was an 

 extremely pale one, but whether this was abnormal or is 

 characteristic of a local race is uncertain.:]; 



" It is found," says Major St. John, " in the warm plains of 

 Southern Persia and the damp forest regions of the Caspian, 

 but not very abundantly in the latter. Its northern limit is 

 about Lankoran. Westwards, it is found in great nnmbers in 

 the tamarisk jungles and reed beds of Mesopotamia." 



Westwards, again, it still occurs in many places in Asia Minor 

 and Palestine, and is tolerably abundant in Cyprus. 



Formerly it unquestionably inhabited parts of Spain, Sicily, 

 Sardinia, Tunis, Algiers, and many of the Islands of the Greek 

 Archipelago ; but civilization has in all these countries been too 

 much for it, and its sole and last remaining /zV;/ a terre within 

 nominal European limits is Cyprus, which, for my part, I should 

 rather include in Asia. 



It IS IN the valleys of our larger rivers, where population is 

 not very dense, and where high grass and tamarisk {Jhao) 

 jungle are interspersed with cultivation, that the Black Partridge 

 will be met with in greatest abundance. In such localities — and 

 many such exist to this day, despite railways and breech- 

 loaders — fifty brace may still be bagged in a single day by a 



occurs, though not very commonly, in Cachar. I have not heard of it in the Naga 

 Hills. Mr. Cowley tells me it is unknown at Sadiya and Dibrugarh. In Manipur it 

 is very abundant. 



The Black Partridge affects well-raised dry ground covered with light grass, and is 

 in Bengal generally shot from the howdah ; in Manipur very good sport may be had 

 on foot with dogs or beaters. This species is always found in couples and never in 

 coveys. It breeds throughout Bengal. 



* At any rate from the Indus to the Teesta, though much rarer in the extreme 

 north-west. Whether they extend into the Bhutanese Himalayas I cannot say. 



+ ££•. Almost the whole of Jodhpore, Mulani, Jeysulmere, Bickaneer, &c. 



% A precisely similar bird has recently been shot in Sind by Mr. Doig, 



