4 



Catalogue of the Birds 



[July 



varying in number from 4 or 5 to 50, or even more, and frequents the 

 open stony plains, and bare fields. It flies swiftly, and generally at a consi- 

 derable height, and as Colonel Sykes has remarked " has a most peculiar 

 and piercing cry which often announces its approach ere it is observed. 

 It feeds chiefly on a very hard kind of seed. When approached it often 

 squats close, and it is very difficult to distinguish it in some pieces of 

 ground. After its morning me d it always goes to some neighbouring 

 water to drink. Its flesh, which is brown and white, is remarkably hard 

 and tough, and will keep longer than that of any other game bird ; this 

 hardness causes it to be less appreciated than it deser^ es to be, for, when 

 kept a sufficient time and well dressed, it has an excellent flavour, inferior 

 to very few of the Indian game birds. 



I have found its eggs several times lately in the months of January 

 and February, placed on the ground without any nest, 3 in number and of 

 light olive greenish Ime, speckled with olive brown and dusky, of a very 

 long shape, and equally rounded at both ends. 



Length about 13 or 14 inches ; wing 7 ; tail (centre feather) 5 ; weight 

 of male about 9 oz. ; bill, legs, and naked skin round eye, cinereous. 



271. — P. quadricinctus^ Tevara^ — Tetrao Ind'cus of Gmelin. — iTitni- 

 deyreet H. — Fainted Whistling Grouse or Rock pigeon. 



This richly plumaged rock grouse, is much more rare than the last, and 

 unlike it is neither gregarious nor found in the open plains. It lives in 

 pairs, and frequents bushy plains, and stony and jungly hills. It flies but 

 a short distance, and its cry, which is of the same c haracter as that of i's 

 congener, though much less loud, and deeper, is never heard except when 

 the birds are first flushed. 



I have lately got the eggs of this species, also, very similar to the 

 other, bu rather smaller, and with the spots fewer and larger. 



Irides deep brown ; bill red ; naked skin round eye, lemon yellow with 

 a green tinge ; feet ochre yellow ; claws reddish. Length 10 inches ; 

 wing 7^ ; tail 3 ; weight of cock bird about 7 oz. 



Gen. VY.milX.— Partridge, 



272. —P. picta, Jard. and Selby, 111. Ornith.— P, Hephurnii, Gray and 

 Hardw., 111. Ind. Zool. — Kala Teetur, 11. — Painted Partridge. 



The painted Partridge is not found in the Carnatic, nor in the 

 Malabar Coast, and I believe not in the more southern portion of the 

 table land. It begins to be met with first in any quantity about N. lat. 

 15®, in the neighbourhood of Bellary, and becomes more numerous as 

 you advance towards the north. It frequents both low bushy jungle 



