JUNGLE BUSH-QUAIL 253 



a subject for research. A hen bird weighed only eiglit ounces, 

 but males would probably be a little heavier ; but the bird is not 

 a big one, measuring well under a foot. 



Jungle Bush-Quail. 



Perdiculn asiatica* Lowa, Hindustani. 



This funny, thick-set, stout-billed little bird, though not so 

 big as the ordinary quail, is really a pigmy relative of the ordinary 

 grey partridge, which it much resembles in many of its ways, 

 even to the detail of getting into a temper when blown upon in 

 a cage. Like larger partridges, it has an easily distinguishable, 

 though small, tail, and oven a rudimentary spur on the legs of the 

 cock. The bright chestnut head will distinguish it from all our 

 other quails, except its near relative next to be mentioned ; both hen 

 and cock have this ginger headpiece, but the rest of the hen's 

 plumage is a simple light brown, while the cock sports a z;ebra 

 waistcoat of black and white. Young birds have the plumage 

 brown with pale streaks, and no reddish tint on the head. The 

 bill is black, and the legs orange. 



The native name Loiva, applied to this bird, is also given 

 to button-quails, and evidently means some bird which is much 

 like a quail, but not the exact thing. Other names — Juhar, 

 used in Manbhum, and the Canarese Karl Loivga, Sonthal 

 Anriconnai, and Telugu Girzapitta, bearing witness to the marked 

 personality of this little fellow, which is a favourite fighting bird 

 with natives, combating with more noise and fury than even the 

 grey partridge. 



It is confined to our Empire, and in that to the Peninsula and 

 North Ceylon ; while even in this restricted range it is local, 

 although a dry or moist climate does not affect it much ; nor is it 

 particular about elevation, ranging up to -5,000 feet. But it wants 

 its location dry underfoot, and frequents wooded and broken or 

 sloping ground, though it will come into grass and stubble to 

 feed, and is quite contented with scrub cover ; but cover of some 



* caTnhaiensis on plate. 



