to these, as they sit inside the trees and do not call, (while the
cocks sit in some conspicuous place and are very noisy, especially
during the breedin<r season,) I have on several occasions shot
females also in and out of trees and bushes. I know that this
has been questioned, and perhaps in some places they are more,
and in others less, arboreal ; but I have myself seen them in
trees too often to doubt that in some localities, at any rate, they
greatly affect these. Many others notice the same fact. Writing
from the Central Provinces, Mr. R.Thompson remarks:—
" T h e cock, at any rate, is eminently arboreal, frequently
selecting a branch forty feet high as a perch from which to call.
It is quite the exception to find this bird at the breeding season,
and whilst calling, elsewhere than perched on the topmost
branch of some tree. Many, I know, have an idea that the
Painted Partridge seldom perches, but this is an entire mistake,
as might be demonstrated any morning here in the home of
these birds."
Mr. A. G. Theobald says :—" This species calls extremely late
in the evening and early in the morning. I have invariably
flushed them from low bushes and trees, to which they always
resort at nightfall. The call sounds very much like the words
" Shaikh Jut teed kunkur."
Of course they may often be seen and heard calling from
rocky points, ant-hills or other earthy eminences ; it is not supposed
that they resort exclusively to the tops of trees and
bushes ; I only think that, as a rule, they prefer these as (to use
the native phrase " mimbar") pulpits.
Mr. Laird writes :—
" In Belgaum you are almost certain to find this species in
any fields well studded with trees. It is perhaps most abundant
in the black sugarcane soil, which is generally well sprinkled
over with kekar (Babul) trees. Broadly speaking, it does not
occur west of Belgaum, the ground not being suitable.
" It is very fond of perching on trees in the morning and
evening, when it may be seen high up on these uttering its
peculiar cry.
" The best season for shooting these birds here is at the commencement
of June, just before the rains, when the young
sugarcane, which they greatly affect, is about two or three feet in
height. The bag is generally a mixed one of Quail, Grey and
Painted Partridges, with perhaps a Likh or two. Seven or eight
brace of Painted Partridges, with fifteen brace of Quail, &c, would
be here reckoned a good bag for one gun at that time of year."
Mr. J. Davidson remarks :—•
" This Partridge is fairly common in Sholapur and in Satara,
but is very local in both districts, the birds being only found, as
a rule, in villages containing grass reserves or sugarcane plantations.
There are exceptions to this rule, however. I remember
one village iu Sholapur, in particular, which contained no single
garden or plantation, and had no grass reserve within two miles of
it, but a nalla fringed with Babul jungle ran through the whole
village land, and along this nalla there were numbers of Painted
Partridges.
" In the Panch Mahals I heard this Partridge calling in considerable
numbers during the rains, and it is probably pretty
common there."
" In the eastern portions of the Poona and Satara districts
small patches of sugarcane in the neighbourhood of nallas
are," as Mr. Vidal writes, "the places, excellence, in which to
find and shoot the Southern Francolin, and here, with good dogs
to flush them out of the cane (a rather troublesome matter
without dogs), they afford excellent sport."
And equally in low scrub jungle on broken and rocky ground,
and in standing crops in the neighbourhood of this, especially
in the immediate vicinity of perennial streams, in parts of Gwalior,
Jhansi, Narsinghpur, Jubbulpore, &c, very pretty sport
may be had. They run more than the Blacks, but after running
some distance, generally conclude to squat, and then lie well ;
but to ensure a good bag in such situations, a long line, several
guns, and dogs to recover winged birds, are necessary.
They are as easy to shoot as an English Partridge, but they
fly faster and take a harder blow to kill outright than the Black.
The call of the male, heard at all seasons, morning and evening,
but only rarely during the autumn and the early part of
the cold weather, is quite distinct from that of the Common
Francolin, although of somewhat the same character. People
syllablizc it in a variety of ways (Chi",-kce-kerray— Tec-tce-teeturay,
&c), but it has a pitch and ring not within the compass of the
unaided human voice, although with a cut reed and a lota of water
it may be fairly imitated. They begin calling even earlier
in the morning, and call on till later in the evening, than do the
Common Francolin.
The food of the Painted Partridge is much the same as that
of the Black—insects and grubs, grain and seeds, and tender
shoots and buds of grasses and weeds of many kinds, constitute
its normal diet, the larvse and eggs of white ants being special
favourites; but in the neighbourhood of villages it is often, like
its northern congener, a foul feeder, and is never, I think, so
good a bird for the table.
Like the Black, it is generally to be found in pairs ; very
rarely two hens and one cock may be met with together apparently
belonging to the same party, and possibly it is not
so strictly monogamous as is the Common Francolin. It is
never seen in anything approaching a covey, except during the
autumn, when an old pair and four or five nearly full-grown
young birds may at times be flushed almost en masse.
It seems to work hard for its food, and you may watch it in
young wheat, scratching about in the ground vigorously, or