THE QUAIL 



Coturnix communis 



Arabic, Salwa 



Plumage — Upper parts brown marked with grey, rufous, 

 and black, a buff line over eye and on crown of head, a 

 semicircular collar of dark brown on throat ; lower parts 

 lighter, streaked with black down centre of feathers, beak 

 brown, legs pale warm brown, eyes hazel. Total length, 

 7*5 inches. 



The call of the male Quail is one of those strange 

 sounds that have around it much of the halo 

 that the song of the Cuckoo has at home, be- 

 cause it marks a definite date — the passing of 

 winter and the coming of summer. For the 

 ordinary traveller this call, which by some has 

 been rendered as sounding like " What we whee," 

 is all that he will ever know of the bird's presence, 

 as it is curiously skulking in habits, and never 

 rises unless suddenly alarmed by one's walking 

 through the cover in which it hides. Personally 

 1 agree with a friend who said the sound was 

 identical with the sort of cheeping call of a young 

 turkey poult, but all descriptions of birds' songs 

 I hold to be rather vain. Each one for himself 



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