tracts of Rajputana, Sind, &c, though it may be found in
these during the rainy season, and because, lastly, it shuns
heavy forest and dense jungle, and I think, except in the case
of the Himalayas in summer, mountains generally.
There are, therefore, wide tracts, even within the limits which I
have approximately indicated, in which it does not, I believe,
occur ; and nothing but the co-operation of sportsmen all over
the country will enable us to obtain a really correct notion of
the actual distribution within our limits of this very pretty
little species.
Outside our limits, it has as yet only been recorded from
Formosa, It has not been observed in any other part of China,
and it is just possible that it may have been introduced into
Formosa, as the Eastern or Chinese Francolín has been introduced
into Mauritius.
I N UFTER INDIA I have almost exclusively met with it in
patches of low, dense grass, and most generally in patches of
this nature situated in Dhak, {Butea froudosa,) or other thin bush
or tree jungles. Occasionally I have flushed it from low crops,
and not unfrcqucntly from belts of grass surrounding and dividing
fields of these.
It is hard to find without dogs, only rises when hard pressed,
rises almost silently, sails away for a dozen yards like some large
bee, and drops suddenly into some dense tuft of grass whence,
as a rule, it makes no attempt to run, and where the dogs will
often pounce upon it.
I have once or twice seen it feeding in the early mornings in
the little open spaces intervening between thinly-set tufts of
grass growing in lands which are flooded during the rains.
During these latter I have seen them gliding like little mice
about the paths of my own and other gardens, where there
was plenty of moderately-high fine grass. Two or three shot
during the cold season had eaten only grass seeds, while two
shot in my garden in Etawah had fed almost exclusively on
termites.
I cannot say that I have ever noticed their call, and I believe
that the)- are generally very silent birds. I really know so little
about this species, though I have probably seen ten times as
many of these as I have of the Indian Button Quail, that I am
fain to quote what little others have recorded about it.
Colonel Sykes remarked that " they affect thick, short grass
and fields of pulse of Doliclios biftorus, Phaseolas max, and
Ervum bus. I never found the bird otherwise than solitary.
It is so difficult to flush that it not unfreqently rises from
beneath the feet, and when on the wing, its flight is so abrupt,
angular, and short, that it is generally down ere the gun is
well up to the shoulder."
Dr. Jerdon tells us that this species " occurs through the
whole* of India (not, however, affecting hilly or forest districts)
in grass, corn-fields, and wherever there is thick herbage. It is
flushed with great difficulty, often getting up at your very feet,
flies but a few yards, and drops down again into the grass, not
to be re-flushed but after a most laborious search, and sometimes
allowing itself to be caught by the hand or by a dog.
Its name of Dubki, signifying ' squatter,' is given from this
habit. It has a low plaintive moan of a single note."
Col. Tickell says :—
" A favorite haunt in jungly country are those sandy tracts of
ground where trees do not thrive, but are replaced by scattered
b& and similar bushes and patches of wire grass. In these
the bird lies so close and snug that it may almost be trodden
on before it takes wing, and then will sometimes fly for a few
yards only. When once settled, it appears determined not to
rise again ; and the cowherd boys in India are so well aw-are of
this propensity that, as soon as one is marked down, they rush
in, follow it up quickly through the grass, and knock it on the
head with a stick."
Mr. Reid writes to me:—
" The Indian and Little Button Quails, though not by any means
common, are everywhere distributed throughout the Lucknow
division. Except in the early morning, when they may be found
feeding in open glades, they are difficult to flush, and when once
flushed, fired at and missed, will seldom rise again, and may
then, if discovered, be easily taken by the hand or killed with a
stick. This is more especially the case with the Little Button,
one of which I myself captured alive after an unsuccessful shot.
" These birds are, I think, fonder of shade than most of
the Quail tribe, being generally found in lonely groves overgrown
with grass, or in gardens or groves surrounded and
intersected by rows of thatching and other long grasses."
Mr. G. Vidal reports that " the Little Button Quail (which the
natives there call by the same name as the Indian Bustard Quail)
is found throughout the Ratnagiri district, but is nowhere common
or abundant. Sometimes it is flushed in crops when beating
for Grey and Rain Quail, but more often on the skirts of
thick temple groves, into the cover of which it sneaks on the
first alarm. It is usually solitary, occasionally in pairs, but never
in coveys."
Captain Butler, who is familiar with its call, informs me that
" the note of this species is remarkable, being a mixture of a
' purr' and a ' coo,' and when uttering it the bird raises its feathers
and turns and twists about much in the same way as an old
cock pigeon. I have often watched them in the act of cooing
within a few yards of me. If an old bird gets separated from
* This must be taken cum grano. There is no evidence of such a wide and univeisal
distribution.