
northern and inhospitable regions), except in Siam and the
Malay Peninsula, to which, as likewise to Sumatra, Borneo,
Java, the Phillippines, Celebes, and other islands, it is not
known to extend. A somewhat differently plumaged race, not,
I believe, entitled to specific separation, is found in Japan and
Northern China. Whether the Common Quail has ever
appeared in Cochin China or Tonquin, I do not know; it
probably straggles to the latter and not to the former.
It is found throughout Europe (except in the extreme north),
the islands of the Mediterranean, Africa, so far as we are
acquainted with it, in suitable localities from Algiers to the
Cape, and in the neighbouring islands, the Canaries, Azores,
Cape de Verde, Mauritius and Madagascar.
IN INDIA, as elsewhere, the great bulk of the Quail are migratory,
while a few here and there are apparently more or less resident
and breed where they have spent the previous portions of the
year.
Into India Quails migrate from the north, from Central
Asia across the Himalayas, and from the west, from Persia,
Beluchistan, &c.; besides these in Sind, Kathiawar and Northern
Guzerat, a few make their appearance, occasionally if not regularly,
having crossed by sea from Arabia or Africa.
The Central Asian birds cross generally, I believe, during the
first-half of September—the first Yarkand Expedition caught
a specimen on the 24th of September at the Karatag Lake (just
across the Karakorum, elevation 13,500 feet) that had obviously
dropped out of one of the migrating flocks.
The birds that come from the west, both by land and sea,
are rather earlier, and arrive generally during the last week or
ten days of August.
In both cases I refer to the earlier waves of immigration, for
in some seasons, doubtless owing to the want of food elsewhere,
several such waves succeed each other, and in Kurrachee large
flights have been known to arrive from seawards in November
and December.
Arrived within our boundaries, while a certain number remain
scattered about, some remaining in the lower ranges and valleys
of the Himalayas up to an elevation of four or five thousand
feet, the great bulk move southwards and eastwards, and arrive
about the middle of October in districts like Furreedpore, Dacca
Sylhet,* and about the end of that month in Poona,f Satara,
and Belgaum.
* Mr. Cripps remarks :—" Common from the 15th October to the close of March
They frequent crops of peas, millets, &c , also ' sun' grass fields. In the early
mornings, and again about an hour before sunset, they are scattered about the
borders of the different crops they frequent, but during the day they are only found,
in the patches of 'sun* grass, and occasionally in the centre of the crops. I have
seen them in the districts of Dacca, Furreedpore, Mymensingli, and Sylhet, and in
But both the time at which they arrive in any place and the
numbers in which they come, and the distance to which they
push southwards, depend upon the supply of food at their
breeding homes and in the country intervening between these
and the particular place in question.
In some years, to begin with, many more Quail, probably
many millions more, visit India than in others. Again, as my
friend Mr. Davidson remarks, " if they find sufficient provision
in Upper India and Guzerat, the majority stay there, and
comparatively few are seen in the south, while in years like
1878 (when the crops were deficient in the north) immense
numbers come south."
In ordinary years in Upper India, when the kharif harvest
is over and the birds have pretty well gleaned the stubbles,
no large numbers of Quail are to be met with, except in particular
localities. Enormous numbers are doubtless scattered over
the length and breadth of this vast region, but five or six brace
in a day would probably be as many as could be found ; while
in bad years hardly a bird would be seen. The majority, in
bad years nearly all, have gone south, and the more that leave
Upper India, the more go south, and the further south they push.
As the wheat and barley and other spring crops begin to ripen,
in Upper India, from the end of February onwards, the Quail
begin to draw up northwards and westwards, and in years when
they find less to retain them in Southern and Central India,
they appear during March in Upper India iu prodigious numnone
of them did they breed. My remarks apply to those four districts. They are
found singly, in pairs, and small parties, and in no instance have I put up more than
seven in a party. The natives of the above mentioned districts do not catch them in
nets, as is done in other parts of India, but the Khasias of Sylhet casually noose them
with horse-hair nooses. Ten brace in a day is the largest bag I have heard of iu any
of those districts."
+ Mr. J. Davidson says :—" It is found abundantly in all the few districts in wdiich I
have been stationed—in the Panch Mahals, Satara and Sholapur, in the Deccan, and
Tiimkiir, Mysore, but its numbers and time of arrival seem to depend entirely on the
season. I have known Grey-Quail to remain in the Deccan till the beginning of May,
and again, I have seen them there as early as the middle of October. In the
Panch Mahals I have seen them in the very beginning of October. I don't think any
bred near Godra in the Panch Mahals in 1878, and I have never myself seen anything
to make me believe that they breed in any of the districts I have been in."
Again, Mr. G. Vidal writes :— In the Poona district, in the valleys of the Bhima
and Nira rivers, Grey Quail are, as a rule, plentiful, but the supply varies much
from season to season. As long as there are crops such as Sorghum, Gram, Ttiar
( Urhur), oil seed, etc., they are to be found therein. When the'rabi' or spring crops
are reaped, towards the end of February, the Quail congregate in great numbers in
the dry beds of the rivers, finding ample cover in the tamarisk bushes which grow
luxuriantly there.
"The bulk of the birds appear to arrive early in November, and a few stay till late
in April, but none, it would seem, remain to breed. In the Satara disti ict Grey Quail
are less common, but every three or four years a good season occurs in the Krishna
valley.
" In Itatnagiri Grey Quail are very scarce, and are seldom found except in one or two
localities, such as Chipliin and Khed, where there is a considerably area of alluvial
soil sown with winter crops of Ttiar (Cafanus indicus) and Paota (Doluhos sp).
Large bags, however, are out of the question."