THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 825 
orange brown ; but in some specimens they were dull red, and in 
some a bright brown ; the bill is generally orange, somew^hat dusky on 
the culmen ; in some, however, it is a brownish orange-red, and in the 
females, especially, often brown above and orange below, or even 
yellowish brown or ripe olive ; the cere is generally a hoary orange 
red. sometimes only brown.” (Hume). 
Measuretmnts.—ljuxi^ih 250 to 270 mm.; wing 123 to 139 mm.; 
tail 60 to 68 mm. ; tarsus 32 to 34 mm. ; culmen about 11 to 12 *5 mm. 
“Weight, 7 to 8 ozs.” (Hume). 
Females have the head like the back, which is similar to that of the 
male but almost without the red tinge ; the wing-coverts are less 
finelv marked and the inner webs of the inner secondaries are much 
marked with brown ; the lower parts are coloured like the upper but 
paler, the throat and belly being albescent and the under tail-coverts 
buff. 
Colours of Soft Parts . — Similar to those of the male with the ex- 
ceptions noted above. 
Measurements . — The females average a little smaller than the males ; 
wings 123 to 133 mm. ; tail 59 to 62 mm. ; tarsus 31 to 33 mm. ; culmen 
11 to 12 mm. 
Distribution . — “Greater part of Persia. West to Berijik and 
Kum-Kale on the Euphrates, North to Transcaspia and Bolchara, 
Afghanistan, Baluchistan to Sind and the Indus and across the 
Indus Valley to the Khariar Hills and Salt Range in the Punjab.” 
(Hartert). 
Nidification . — The See-see breeds during April, May and June 
at all heights from the lowest foothills and broken ground adjoining 
the actual plains up to some 6,000 or 7,000 feet. Whitehead found 
them breeding in Chitral, in the Kurram Valley and Kohat up to the 
latter height, and in Afghanistan, eggs have been taken at 7,000 feet. 
The nest consists merely of a scratching in the ground, lined only 
with such scraps of grass leaves as the winds may provide or, perhaps, 
a few fallen feathers of the parent birds. Occasionally rather more 
attempt is made at a nest, a few leaves and pieces of grass being 
collected by the bird and placed in the nest hollow, but such 
attempts are rare and, even then, the results but meagre. 
Tlie site selected is often on the most bare and stony gi-ound, with 
no more shelter than is provided by a boulder larger than the rest, or 
a tuft of the coarse yellow grass which struggles here and there for 
existence. Sometimes it is down in a ravine, well protected by an 
overhanging rock or a bush or, at other times, in an equally well 
protected crevice on the side of a steep hill. One nest has been found 
placed in the angle of the parapet on the flat roof of a temporarily 
uninhabited house. 
The eggs number anything from 5 to 14, but the normal clutch 
piobably varies from 6 to 9. In colour they range from a faint pearly 
