It is not as yet known to occur anywhere outside the Indian
Empire, but it probably occurs in the valley of the Irrawady,
north of our Frontier, far into Independent Burmah ; and, though
neither Swinhoe nor David and Oustalet admit it in their lists
of the Birds of China, a specimen from that country is noticed,
Blyth says, in the report accompanying the narrative of Commodore
Perry's expedition. Possibly there is some mistake
about this.
A L T H O U G H in many districts, especially in the Deccan and
Central India, the Rain Quail, while changing its feeding grounds
and haunts as the seasons revolve, is in normal years a permanent
resident, yet throughout the major portion of its range the great
majority are only seasonal residents, spending the drier months
of the year in the low-lying and moist tracts of Lower Bengal
and other provinces, and the monsoon in the higher, drier
regions of Upper and Western India.
In the Punjab, in the N.-W. Provinces north of the Jumna,
in Oudh and Bchar, in Western Rajputana, Sind, Cutch
and Kalhiawar, it is not until the rains are just about to commence,
often not till they have set in, that we ever see more
than a straggler. It is only at this time, or late in the hot
weather when some showers have fallen there, that this species
finds its way to the valley of Nepal and other similar places
in the Eastern and Central Himalayas up to elevations of four to
six thousand feet. Except at this season, the Rain Quail is
normally a bird of the plains, not ascending the hills anywhere,
though a few stragglers ma)' be killed on patches of burnt,
freshly springing grass on the Nilgiris, up to at least 6,000 feet,
as at Neddiwutum in May, after the April showers.
This species is habitually met with in pairs from April to
October, and singly during the cold season. Just after the
young arc able to fly they may be seen in families, but at other
times, though many may be flushed in the same patch, they all rise
and fly independently, and cannot ever be said to occur
between December and July in coveys.
Their general appearance and flight so closely resembles that of
the Grey Quail, that, except for their smaller size, it would be impossible
to distinguish them on the wing. Their habits too are
very similar, but the present species, on the whole, is more of
a grass bird than the Grey Quail, and feeds more on grass seeds;
and, though of course often found in millet and other crops, is less
exclusively devoted to these, and feeds less on grain, than its
cosmopolitan congener.
The call, however, is quite distinct; it is a double (not tri-syllabic)
whistled note, louder and rounder than that of the Common
Quail. It may be heard at all times of the year, but it is only
sporadically that they call, except during the breeding season,
and then their cheery call resounds on all sides from long before
dawn in the morning until the sun is high ; and then again from
an hour or so before sunset until late in the evening ; during
cloudy and showery weather they go to rest earlier and awake
later, but then they call almost throughout the day.
They are familiar birds, crowding into compounds, churchyards,
and all enclosures about stations where there is a little
long grass, and coming out morning and evening shyly to pick
about the paths and roads, ready at the slightest alarm to glide
noiselessly, but rapidly, into their grassy shelter.
Their chief staple of food is, I think, grass seeds, but they
eat also all kinds of grain and lentils, and many insects,
especially termites. I remember shooting one that had eaten
several of the scarlet velvet mite (Trombidium tinctontm, or
some such name) that appears so commonly at the commencement
of the rains—a thing that rather startled me, as I have
noticed that birds generally avoid these gorgeous morsels.
They are not at all forest birds, and are consequently entirely
wanting over large areas where the primeval forest still
survives unmolested, save for the tiny clearings of aboriginal
tribes. They cannot endure excessive moisture ; they love open,
moderately-dry, grassy lands, and in tracts like the low sea
board of the Southern Concan and the Malabar Coast, they
do not, I believe, breed, and only occur as somewhat rare winter
visitants.
Mr. J. Davidson writes to me that—" the Rain Quail is very
common in the Deccan, and is a permanent resident, though it
wanders about a good deal in search of water, food and shelter.
Thus, while in November or December this Quail will be
found scattered about singly or in pairs everywhere, in the hot
weather hundreds will be found collected in a few nallas and
gardens, and the most careful beating will fail to flush a single
bird elsewhere for miles and miles. Moreover, it deserts its
most favourite haunts at once if food begins to run short. In
1876, when the rains failed in Sholapur, and the ground was as
bleak and uncultivated as in the hot weather, I never saw a
single bird. Nor did they return till about June 1877.
" In Ttimkur, Mysore, in the middle of November, they simply
swarmed. They were then in pairs, and commenced calling
hours before daylight, and in one camp positively kept me
awake from four in the morning. I was very busy, and had no
time to look for nests ; but I never started any young ones. They
afterwards collected in the scrub jungle, where some of the flocks
were very large, and they were still there in the middle of May.
During June and July, before leaving Mysore, I was working
in a jungle country, so can hardly say whether they migrated
or not, but I certainly never saw one in these months."
Mr. Reid remarks :—" The Rain Quail is a scarce bird in the
Lucknow division until the rains set in, when, however, it becomes
even more abundant than I have ever known the Grey