THE GAME-BIRDS AND RAILS 



i7 



/'. !>■■■, I .' < 



HIMALAYAN 



MONAL 



Ik some parts of hidia this bird has heen exterminatcJ^ oiuing to the 

 demands of the plume~market 



The Common Partridge is the more 



abundant of the two species. Though more 



sober in coloration, it is still a beautiful bird. 



The " horse-shoe " mark, borne on the breast, 



so characteristic of this bird, is not con- 

 fined to the males, as is generally believed. 



" Yielding," says Professor Newton, " perhaps 



in economic importance to the red grouse, 



what may be called the social influence of 



the partridge is greater than that excited by 



any other wild bird." 



This bird displa\-s great courage and 



affection in defence of its eggs or \'0ung. 



A story illustrating this is told of a gentle- 

 man, who, " whilst superintending his plough- 

 men, saw a partridge glide off her nest, so 



near the foot of one of his plough-horses 



that he thought the eggs must be crushed; 



this, however, was not the case. . . . He 



saw the old bird return to her nest the 



instant he left the spot. It was evident 



that the next round of the plough must 



bury the eggs and nest in the furrow. His 



surprise was great when, returning with the 



plough, he came to the spot and saw the 



nest indeed, but the eggs and bird were gone. An idea struck him tliat she had removed her 



eggs ; and he found her, before he left tlie field, sit- 

 ting under the hedge upon twent\'-one eggs. . . . 

 The round of ploughing had occupied about twenty 

 minutes, in wjiicli time she, probably aided b)- the 

 cock bird, had removed the twenty-one eggs to a 

 distance of about forty yards." 



Tlie Red-legged Partridges, their allies the 

 FRANCuLL\s,and the Grev Partridges areall ground- 

 birds ; the Tree-p.^rtridges, as the name implies, are 

 not, or at least less complete!)- so — hence their 

 mention here. The\- are nati\es of tlie Indo-Chinese 

 countries, and the islands of Java, Borneo, and P"ormosa. 

 The Quail is a little-known British bird, ver_\' like 

 a small partridge in appearance. Enormous numbers, 

 Professor Newton tells us, " are netted on the Conti- 

 nent, especial!}' in the spring migration. The captives 

 are exposed in the poulterers' shops, confined in long, 

 cloth-covered cages, with a feeding-trough in front." 

 Tlie bulk " of these are males, which are the first to 

 arrive, and advantage is taken of this circumstance by 

 the bird-catchers, who decoy hundreds into their nets 

 by imitating the call-note of the female. It has been 

 stated that in the small island of Capri, in the Bay 



fh>ttby W. F. Dandt, F.Z.S. r -VT 1 ^ I l_ i. i • -1 



of Naples, 100,000 have been netted m a smgle 



HIMALAYAN MONAL season, and even larger numbers are on record." An 



Thi fcmait of ihe monal ii (juiie soberly clad Idea of the vast uumbcrs which travel together in 



