fast, that in places where they are abundant they must, I should
think, afford excellent sport. Always, be it understood, if you
have small dogs to flush them, for without dogs, though you
may or may not be able to start them once, you will certainly
not succeed in putting them up a second time.
They feed chiefly on grass seeds ; very little, so far as my
experience goes, on either grain or insects, though they do undoubtedly
eat both of these. But I have always found them in
meadows, where there was but little cultivation in the neighbourhood,
and perhaps, when they occur where millet fields are
common, they may, as I have been told, feed equally on these
small grains.
Mr. Davison has recently been shooting great numbers of this
species in the Malay Peninsula, and his experiences, as recorded
in the following note, tally closely with mine, derived from observations
in Lower Bengal. He says :—" This species occurs commonly
throughout the western-half of the Malay Peninsula,
but it is specially abundant about Klang, in the state of
Salangore.
" I found that the adult birds kept in pairs, and when more
than two were found together, they consisted, as a rule, of the
parent birds and the covey of young. When flushed, they rise
singly and fly without reference to each other.
" They frequent, as a rule, grass land, especially where this is
rather swampy. I have on a few occasions flushed and shot
them in gardens, but, unlike Titrnix plumbipes (which might be
termed the Garden Quail par excellence), they much prefer wild
grass-covered land and scrub jungle, when the undergrowth of
this latter consists of grass, to any gardens.
" In the morning and evening they are very fond of coming
out on to roads and other open and clear places.
" They are, I think, very silent birds, and are seldom heard
calling, even during the breeding season, except when the pair have
been separated, when one or other (the male usually) commences
calling, and is at once answered by the other. The call is a low
soft whistle which may be approximately syllablised as ' Pi-oo'
(whence the Malay name).
" After having once risen they are very difficult to flush a second
time without the aid of dogs, but they do not run nearly so much
as Turntx docs, and after alighting (and running a few paces or
not as the case may be), they squat, and are so reluctant to move
that I have often seen them caught by a small terrier that I used,
to flush them.
" Though by no means invariably the case, both sexes when
flushed (especially if suddenly come upon) often give utterance
to a peculiar sharp note,' tit, tir, tit,' uttered very quickly and
sharply.
" Those that I examined—and I have lately dissected numbers
—had eaten only grass seeds."
Mr. Cripps writes :—" I have shot this Quail in the Dacca district,
where it is comparatively rare. I have always observed
them during the cold season, and am of opinion that they do
not breed in the district. They frequent the stubble of paddy
crops, and when flushed make for the nearest patch of ' Sone'
grass or scrub, when it is very difficult to flush them a second
time. They are found singly, and occasionally in pairs."
THE PAINTED QUAIL breeds in Pegu, Cachar, Purneah and
the Sub-Himalayan districts westwards of this, and in the warmer
valleys of the lower outer ranges of the Himalayas from
Sikhim to near Kasauli. Where else it breeds within our
limits I have yet to learn—probably in Ceylon, Tenasserim, and
the valley of Assam, at any rate. It breeds freely in the Malay
Peninsula, whence also I have the eggs.
This species is clearly monogamous. The hen sits (not the
male, as in the Bustard Quails), and the male is always to be found
near at hand ; and when the young are hatched both parents
accompany the brood for at least two months after they are able
to fly.
I have had reason to suspect that they may breed twice a year,
but the matter is still doubtful, as the different periods at which we
have found their nests may be due to differences in the climate
of the localities in which we met with them.
In the Sub-Himalayan districts and ranges, it lays from the
latter end of June to at least the second week in August. In
Cachar, Mr. J. Inglis tells me that it lays in June and July. In
the Malay Peninsula Davison took the eggs in March. The
nest, always on the ground, usually in the midst of low short
grass, though always close to thicker cover, is a mere depression
in the soil, more or less thinly lined with blades and fine stems of
grass. Six appears to be the usual complement of eggs, but
in two cases only five and four eggs respectively were found a
good deal incubated.
Davison says :—" I took a nest of this species containing six
eggs at Klang on the 15th of March. The nest was, as usual
with Quails, a mere depression in the ground, loosely lined with a
few grass stems. It was in rather an odd situation, being placed
directly in front of, and only a few paces from, an iron target,
which was fired at almost every day in the wreek, and often by
whole squads of men, for hours at a time. The little bird did
not seem to mind the firing in the least, nor the soldiers and
others passing; but if any one approached too close to the nest,
she would fly off with a sharp note of remonstrance, returning
however in a very short time."
Writing from Pegu, Mr. Oates remarks :—"A nest found on the
14th July was a mere pad of grass placed in a clump of coarse
grass. It contained five fresh eggs. They are slightly glossy