A Manual of the Game Birds of India
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A MANUAL OF THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. , ^O' A MANUAL <^F , -^ » ^.J THE 9 -I, GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 7 ^^ ^ part I.-XanJ) J5(rD0, BY EUGENE W. GATES, Aulhor of " " A Handbook to the Birds of British Burmah ; Vols. I. and II. of '^ The Fmtna of British India: Birds Editor of the Second Edition of Humes '* Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," Date of Publication. February io, PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY MESSRS. A. J. COMBRIDGE & CO., BOMBAY, 1898. \\s><\Sbb Printed by Hazell. Watwn. S: Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury- PREFACE. In the present small volume, I have attempted to give a brief but, I hope, sufficient account of some of the Indian Game Birds, and I propose to complete the account of the remaining Birds with- out undue delay. Of the books which have been written on the subject of the Game Birds of India, the large illustrated work of Messrs. Hume and Marshall is at once the most compre- hensive and the most important. It is, however, nearly twenty years since this work was published, and in the interval many species of Game Birds have been added to the Indian list. The Catalogue of the Game Birds in the British Museum (vol. xxii.), written VI Preface. by Mr. Ogilvie Grant, and published by order of the Trustees, is a valuable work, and contains an account of all the Land Game Birds of the world, but it is of too technical a character to be of use to the mere sportsman. A work of the same scope by the same author, but in a somewhat popular form, (a Handbook to the Game-Birds,) forming one of the series of "Allen's Naturalist's Library," has quite recently been published. This work is, however, too comprehensive for the requirements of the resident in India. The forthcoming final volume of the Birds, in the " Fauna of British India," by Dr. W. T. Blanford, will include the Game Birds. This work is far too technical, however, for the ordinary sportsman, and moreover embraces other groups of birds with which the latter has no concern. Altogether it seems to me that a small, handy manual, such as I have written, is required to bring our knowledge of the Indian (lame Birds up to date and to suit Preface. vii the requirements of men who are more sportsmen than they are naturalists ; and I have accordingly, since my return to England, devoted my leisure time to its preparation. My object has been to make this volume as concise as possible, and to assign such characters to the various groups and to the individual species as can be easily understood. It has been my aim through- out to select characters which apply to both sexes without exception. This is, I believe, the first attempt yet made to render the identification of the female game birds easy. It is too much the practice to pass the females of this group over with a brief and insufficient description, or, when figuring them, to place them as small, and frequently unrecognisable, objects in the background. Although a considerable time has passed since the large work of Messrs. Hume and Marshall was published, I regret to say that very little additional information regarding the habits of the Viii Preface. Game Birds has been published in the interval, and therefore, in my account of habits, my readers will recognise many familiar quotations from the above work, and from Dr. Jerdon's ever fresh and interesting articles. In writing of any large group of birds, no author can be expected to have a personal acquaintance with more than a mere fraction of the members composing it, and all he can do is to quote the best available notes regarding them. I have derived so much information from the works of the above-mentioned authors, and from Mr. Ogilvie Grant's Catalogue, that it has been impossible for me to acknowledge such information separately in each particular instance. I can only express my great obligations now in a general way. I have again had the privilege of carry- ing on my studies in the bird-rooms of the British Museum. The national collection of birds now contains nearly four hundred thousand specimens, of Preface. ix which about eight thousand illustrate the groups included in this volume. One cannot but admire the skill with which this stupendous collection is arranged and made available for reference and study. It ought to be the aim of every Englishman abroad, who devotes his attention to birds, to render this collection still more com- plete by presenting to it specimens of rare and little-known species. My thanks are due to Sir W. H. Flower, the Director of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, for allowing me free access to the bird collection ; also to Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, the Assistant Keeper of the Vertebrate Section, and to Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant, his colleague in the Bird Department, for the assistance they have constantly and ungrudgingly given me. Eugene W, Gates. I Carlton Gardens, Ealing, London. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION I THE SAND-GROUSE . l6 THE HEMIPODES OR THREE-TOED QUAILS 55 THE GALLINACEOUS BIRDS . 70 THE MEGAPODES . 382 THE BUSTARDS .... 389 — ir A MANUAL OF THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. Ipart I.—XanD mvt^s. INTRODUCTION. The Game Birds of India which frequent the land, as distinguished from those which swim or wade, are eighty-eight in number, and are referable to five sections or orders, containing the following number of species : Sand-Grouse . 8 species. Hemipodes • • 5 „ Gallinaceous Birds . 68 ,, Megapodes . i m Bustards . 6 „ The characters which separate these five sections one from the other are very — ; 2 Manual of the Game Birds of India. simple and easily understood. The following statement exhibits these cha- racters : Sand-Grouse (p. i6). — The tarsus feathered, and sometimes the toes also. Hemipodes (p. 55). —The tarsus bare; no hind toe. Gallinaceous Birds (p. 70). —The whole or a large portion of the tarsus bare ; with a hind toe situated above the level of the front toes. Megapodes (p. 382). —The tarsus bare with a hind toe situated on the same level as the front toes. Bustards (p. 389). — Not only the tarsus, but also a portion of the tibia bare ; no hind toe. The limits of British India, as recognised by me, coincide with those employed by Dr. W. T. Blanford in the volumes of the " Fauna of British India." I include Ceylon for the same reason that led Dr. Blanford to include it in his volumes ; its inclusion only adds two species to my list. With reference to the little-known and undefined territories in the extreme north-east of Assam and Burma, I have included all the country which is pre- sumably British. Of this nature, in my opinion, are the Mishmi Hills, which Introductmi. appear to stand in the same category as the Kachin tracts in the extreme north of Burma, above Myitkyina. The Hmits of Burma, east of Bhamo, and of the northern Shan States are not yet properly defined and mapped out, and in the case of one or two birds which have been found in this debatable land, I have thought it preferable to include, rather than to exclude, them. By bringing them to notice, we may hope that sportsmen will direct their energies to the acquisition of specimens of these rare species. On the other hand, while quite willing to give any species the benefit of a doubt, I am unable to include in my list two species noticed by Messrs. Hume and Marshall, which there is no reason to believe have ever occurred within Indian limits. Of the eighty-eight species included in my list, forty are in Dr. Jerdon's work and seventy-six in that of Messrs. Hume and Marshall. Of the twelve species not treated of by the latter authors, eight are species discovered and named after the issue of their work; three are additions to the Indian fauna from surrounding countries ; and one is a species of which they were in doubt at the time they 4 Manual of the Game Birds of India. wrote, but which appears to me to be quite valid. I have tried to write for the sportsman rather than for the naturahst, and I have consequently avoided the use of technical terms. I believe I have employed no term which requires explanation. Throughout this work the characters employed for the groups apply equally to the males and females, unless otherwise noted. When I finally arrive at the species, the difference between the male and female, if they differ, is then duly pointed out. I have not dealt with the plumage of the immature bird. To have done so would have taken a great deal of space, and to very little purpose, for the plumage of the young is always undergoing a series of changes. Usually the young will be obtained in the company of the parents, and can thus be easily identified. It may be laid down as a general rule that the young male resembles the female parent till such time as it commences to assume the plumage of the adult male. The description of the plumage in this volume is generally in considerable detail, but I have not thought it necessary to describe minutely the intricate coloration I?itroductio7i. 5 of the Quails, nor the comphcated pattern of colours which frequently adorns the wing of many of the game birds. The measurements given are sufficient to afford an accurate idea of the size of a bird, and represent average measure- ments.