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bands of buff ; beneath whitish, washed with rufescent on the chest, each feather crossed with from four to six 
narrow wavy bars of black, which on the centre of the chest take a crescentic course, and on the flanks become 
broader ; on the upper flanks and sides of the breast there is a chestnut patch along the margins of many of the 
feathers ; under tail-coverts rufous-buff, with narrow wavy bars of black ; under wing rufescent white, barred with 
pale brown. 
Females appear to have the bars of the under surface more crescentic than males ; but I do not know whether this 
character is constant, as I did not examine a sufficient number of this sex. The chestnut side-patches are almost 
absent in immature birds. 
Ohs. The few examples in the national collection which I have been able to compare with my series from Ceylon are 
from the north of India, and present some slight points of difference to insular birds. The cross rays of the 
under surface are not crescentic, as they are on the centre of the breast in Ceylon specimens, but are in the oim 
of transverse bars ; and in a Kattiawar example there are scarcely any markings on the under tail-coverts, which 
are almost uniform rufous, with just a trace of barring on the shorter feathers ; there is likewise less of the red 
coloration on the scapulars and wing-coverts. This is, however, a variable character in our insular birds, and is 
probably the same in continental. Three examples measure 5'4, 5'5, and 5*6 inches in the wing ; tarsus l'ti. 
If my memory serves me aright, caged specimens brought from Tutieorin to Colombo for sale were identical with 
island birds ; and 1 have no doubt that the species is one which is subject to slight variation in the matter of the 
marking of the under surface. Some examples I have seen from India have the under tail-coverts quite as much 
marked as in Ceylonese. 
Distribution. — The Grey Partridge is confined to the extreme north of Ceylon and the north-west coast 
as far south as Puttalam. It extends down the coast as far as Battutoya; but about Chilaw I did not 
meet with it, and found from inquiry that it did not inhabit that district. It is very numerous on some of 
the islands off Jaffna, and likewise to the south of Pootieryn Point. In this neighbourhood there is a place 
called Kowtheri-munoi (Partridge Point), where Mr. W. Murray tells me as many as twenty brace have been 
shot in the morning before breakfast. All down the coast from this locality to Pomp-aripu it is more or 
less abundant, and in the Erinativoe Islands I found it plentiful. In Manaar Island it is the same, and 
beyond our limits in Ramisserum it is equally common. At Aripu Mr. Holdsworth states that it was always 
very abundant. • Mr. Parker informs me that it is very abundant on the coast-plains to the north of Puttalam. 
From time to time while in Colombo I met with it in the cinnamon-gardens, in which locality they 
always frequented cue particular spot. These birds, I imagine, had been turned loose, as numbers of 
Partridges are brought in cages about February from Cochin, Tutieorin, and other South-Indian ports. In 
1870 I observed a single bird which frequented some bushes beneath the north front of the Fort at Galle; 
but this individual had evidently escaped or been turned loose, as I never saw or heard of another in the 
south of Ceylon. 
I am not aware how far south of Elephant Pass this Partridge ranges on the east coast ; but I believe it 
has been met with to the north of Mullaitivu. It does not extend inland in any part of the island. 
It is found, according to Jerdon, throughout the greater part of India, not frequenting mountainous or 
forest districts, and totally wanting throughout the Malabar coast. Though recorded from Nepal by Hodgson, 
it is rarely met with, says the author of the ‘ Birds of India/ north of the Ganges; but I imagine it is found 
on the plains of Oude and other level districts, eschewing, as Mr. Hume remarks (‘Nests and Eggs ’) , the 
humid tracts of Lower Bengal, and the Dhoons and Terais that skirt the bases of the Himalayas. Mr. Ball records 
it from the Rajmelial hills, Manbhum, Hazaribagh, and Lohardugga, and remarks that it is rare in the extreme 
west of Chota Nagpur ; he likewise found it in the higher valleys of the Suliman Hills. Thence northwards 
it probably extends into Afghanistan, as it ranges as far as Persia, throughout the south-eastern portion of 
which country Mr. Blanford found it. Its extreme western limit, writes Major St. John, in Persia appears 
to be Lar. It is also common in Baluchistan. 
Returning, however, to the Indian Empire, with which we have more particularly to deal, we find it common 
in open and cultivated districts throughout the entire north-western region, although, according to Captain 
Butler it occurs sparingly in the hills. Further south in the Deccan it is, according to the Rev. Dr. Fairbank, 
universally distributed, and is likewise said to be common by Messrs. Davidson and Wender. In the eastern 
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