592 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



and adjacent provinces, and is still more common in Assam 

 and Burmah, where it is very abundant. Thence it extends 

 through the islands to Avistralia, and it is said to be common in 

 China and the Philippines. I have killed it once only in the Car- 

 natic ; one specimen is recorded in my Catalogue from Belgaum in 

 Western India. It occurs occasionally in Central India, and in the 

 Upper Provinces as far as Bareilly, but it is rare in all these 

 localities, and perhaps only stragglers find their way so far. In 

 lower Bengal it is tolerably abundant in damp grassy meadows, 

 the edges of Indigo fields, and in the grass on road sides ; and in 

 Purneah, in the month of July, it was the only Quail I observed. 

 It breeds in this month, the eggs being pale olive-green. When 

 the young are full grown, they disperse all over the country, and 

 this dispersion is greatly assisted, and in many parts, perhaps, 

 caused by the heavy inundations to which great part of the 

 country in Bengal is annually subjected, generally in August or 

 September ; and in the cold season they are replaced by the Grey- 

 quail, and the so called Rain-quail. A female or young bird, 

 evidently of this species, is figured in the Bengal Sportinrj Magazine, 

 1836, pi. 1. f. 5, the writer considering it possibly a young of 

 C. coroma?idelica, and Hodgson as young of C. communis. 



Other species of this pretty genus are E. novce guinece, Gmel. ; 

 E. .1 cZamson?, Verreaux ; and E. minima, Gould, from Celebes, 

 ' the smallest game-bird in the world.' 



The American Partridges form the sub-family Ortygin<R of some, 

 OdontophorhKB, Gray and Gould, the latter Ornithologist having 

 published a valuable monograph of the group. They comprise 

 several distinct forms, some crested, others not so ; they are birds of 

 a size intermediate between a Quail and a Partridge, and are 

 found both in North and South America. One genus, Odontophorus, 

 is chiefly found in South America. It has the bill short, much 

 arched, and with two small teeth on each side of the lower 

 mandible near its point. Ortyx and its near affines, Lophorti/x, 

 Strophiorti/x, Bendrortj/a;, are mostly from North America. They 

 frequent fields, hedge-rows, and occasionally woods. The females 

 are said to lay numerous eggs, from fifteen to twenty-four. Blyth 

 remarks that Lophortyx appears to bear the same relationship to 



