TUI taiflM
Francolinus chinensis, Osbeck.
Vernacular Names.—[Hka (Burmese), Pegu; Nock-Kalitah, Siam.]
UTHIN our limits, the Eastern Francolin only
occurs, so far as I yet know, in the valley of the
Irrawaddy, extending about as far south as
Prome, and perhaps a little further down. We met
with it nowhere in Tenasserim, and it is unknown,
Ramsay tells us, in the plains of the
Tonghoo district, though abundant just outside
our boundary in the Karenee Hills.
Out of India, it occurs in Southern China, in the provinces
of Fokien, Quang-tung, Quang-si and Yunan, in the Island
of Hainan, in Tonquin, Cochin-China, Siam and Independent
Burma. Strange to say, it is, or was, also common in Mauritius,
where it must, however, have been introduced.
I HAVE NEVER seen this bird alive, and can find but little on
record about its habits, food, and the like. In our Pegu paper
Mr. Oates remarks :—
" It frequents open places in forests, scrubby jungle, and waste
land ; a few may be flushed occasionally in a paddy field after
harvest, but, as a rule, it does not stay in the open country. It
has a call which is difficult to syllablize ; but in its general
character it resembles that of F. vulgaris, as noted in Jerdon.
It is particularly vociferous in June and July, at which time
it breeds.
" It docs not keep in flocks or coveys, though many are often
found in the same neighbourhood. The call is uttered from a
stump, and occasionally from the branch of a tree, as much as
ten feet from the ground."
" In the Karenee Hills," says Lieutenant Wardlaw Ramsay,
" it frequents the sides of rocky hills and other inaccessible places.
Its whereabouts may always be known by its extraordinary
call, which it is continually uttering, and which may be rendered
on paper by the syllables kuk, kuk, kuich, kd-kd."