MOUNTAIN QUAIL 219 



squealing call. The covey varies in number from ten to twenty 

 birds, and in winter packs of up to a hundred may be found. 

 Not much is really known about these birds, which seem to 

 have their haunts very much to themselves. Even the eggs 

 have not been taken, but these must be laid pretty early, for 

 3'oung ones are about in May ; and Jerdon got the half-grown 

 birds on the Singhallala spur west of Darjeeling in September, 

 a locality unusually near the plains for this species. 



It maybe gathered from what has been said about its running 

 habits that this bird is not of the sport-showing description; 

 but, occurring as it does where other game is scarce, it is useful 

 for food if one is hard up for meat. But it is an uncertain 

 article of diet, for though it has been found excellent eating in 

 September, after feeding on berries, leaves, and seeds, a diet of 

 coniferous vegetables reduces it to a condition of rankness and 

 toughness that requires a really keen appetite to overcome ; so 

 that it is a bird to be left alone as long as even village fowls can 

 be procured. 



Mountain Quail. 



Oplirijsia supercUiosa. 



Anyone lucky enough to start this curious little bird in 

 shooting in the hills might recognize it by its tail, which is far 

 bigger than in any quail-like bird, whether true quail, bush 

 quail or button quail, being in fact three inches long, while the 

 bird itself is little bigger than the common grey quail. 



A true quail it certainly is not ; some call it a pigmy pheasant, 

 and it may be that, if the blood pheasant is fairly called a 

 pheasant, for to that bird it seems to be allied. Like it, it has 

 long soft plumage and red legs ; but it has no spurs, and the 

 colour of the sexes, though different, does not present the 

 striking contrast of the cock and hen blood pheasants. The 

 cock mountain quail is grey, narrowly streaked with black along 

 the edges of the feathers, and the hen brown, also variegated w^ith 

 black markings, but in her case these are broader and occupy 

 the centre of the feather. There is, in fact, nothing in her colour 

 to attract attention, but the cock is noticeable for the rather 



