MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 497 



see it alive, and, though very nervous and frightened, it readily ate grain and 

 drank water. I kept this little bird alive for nearly a year, and got quite fond 

 of it, till one night (February 9, 1907) it died suddenly in its cage at Dehra 

 Dun. She had been in excellent condition and spirits the day before, and 

 even a careful post-mortem revealed no obvious cause of death. 



As far as I know, this variety of quail has never been kept in captivity 

 before, so some details of its habits and ways may be of interest. At first I 

 kept it in a basket roofed over with trellis-work. Pounded " dhan " or rice 

 formed her staple diet, and she always ate readily. Later on I tried her with 

 ordinary millets and canary seed, and she ate these as greedily. I soon found 

 that she had a great liking for insects, and every day I would catch something, 

 and she soon learnt to take them from between my fingers. Spiders, flies 

 wasp larvae, etc., were all alike delicacies to her, and I witnessed many an ex- 

 citing chase when an insect attempted to escape in the straw in the bottom of 

 the cage. When a larger insect than she cared to tackle, such as a large beetle 

 or even a cockroach, was let loose in the cage, she was greatly concerned, and 

 kept well out of the way until the objectionable creature had taken its 

 departure. One night a mouse entered the cage to steal some of the grain, and 

 gave the poor little bird a dreadful fright. I was at once awakened by her 

 fluttering, and I found that she had parted company with half of her back 

 feathers in her attempts to escape. 



It was a red-letter day for her when I substituted dry earth for part of the 

 straw in her cage. She almost outdid the domestic chickens in her scratchings 

 and peckings. Never before did a few handfuls of dry earth afford such joy. 

 After an hour's pecking, it was the height of bliss to lie in the sun on one side 

 with the uppermost leg and wing stretched out and to indulge in a quiet nap. 

 Of course, in these characteristics she exactly resembled most gallinaceous 

 birds. 



It was wonderful how well the bird got to know me, and knew my 

 voice and whistle quite well. If left alone, she was generally restless, and, 

 curiously, was much quieter if the cage was hung up out of harm's way. I 

 suppose she missed not being able to take cover while in the cage on the 

 ground. I was quite surprised when I first heard her note. It was a loud, 

 clear ringing, which could easily be heard a hundred yards off. I can imitate 

 it fairly well by whistling, but it is hard to reproduce it in writing. If the 

 following is whistled, it will give some idea of the cry : " Whit — it — it — it — t — t." 

 Each " it " is slightly higher in tone, and they tend to run into one another at 

 the end. The cry is generally repeated three or four times, and each time the 

 note becomes louder and higher. It is a beautifully clear, shrill and charac- 

 teristic whistle. After securing this specimen, I several times heard the 

 whistle in long grass in Manipur, and I have no doubt I should have secured 

 several specimens if I had remained longer there. Without knowing the cry 

 of this quail, it is only by accident that one can obtain a specimen, owing to 

 its extreme shyness and its fondness for living in very long grass. 



