256 INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



make a o^ood pie in conjunction with a whole laider-fnll of acces- 

 sories which he enumerates. It is also captured by natives as a 

 fighting bird, but is not so much used or so highly esteemed. 



Like the jungle bush-qu^-il, it is sociable even in the breeding- 

 season, which lasts from August to March, young birds being 

 seen in company with several old ones ; the eggs are creamy 

 white, and four or five in number. Hume says he has noticed 

 no difference in the note, which makes it the more reuiarkable 

 that the birds maintain their distinction, since a difference 

 in language is often found between otherwise similar birds, 

 notably the common and grey quails. 



Painted Bush-Quail. 



* Microperdix erijthrorhynchus. Kadai, Tamil. 



The painted bush-quail is distinguished from all our other 

 quail-like birds, except the next, which is merely a local race of it, 

 by its red bill and legs and the large black spots on its brown 

 plumage ; the cock is distinguished from the hen by having a 

 white throat and eyebrow^s, and black face, chin and cap, the 

 head in the hen being, like the belly in both sexes, of a chestnut 

 colour. 



In young cocks the black cap is the first sex-mark to appear. 

 Although approaching the thick-billed bush-quails rather than 

 the typical quails, this bird has a smaller beak, no indications of 

 spurs, and rises with less of a whirr. 



It is found on the hills of Southern India, the Nilgiris, 

 Pulneys, and Shevaroys, and ranges up the Western Ghauts as far 

 as Bombay. It is also to be found in hillj'^ tracts east of these 

 Ghauts, and has strayed even to Poona. In habits it is a bush- 

 quail, not a typical quail ; it frequents the outskirts of jungle and 

 rocky ground interspersed with low cover, and associates in 

 coveys, the members of which generally all go off together, but in 

 different directions, when flushed. Sometimes, however, they 

 rise independently and at intervals of several minutes ; unless 

 — _ ,_ 



* Perdicula on plate. 



