HUME'S BUSH-QUAIL 259 



experience in finding these birds frequenting " long grass on the 

 banks of nullas and rivers." Blewitt gave the notes as "more 

 soft and melodious " than that of the others, by which " others " 

 presumably he meant the thick-billed bush-quails ; so this need 

 not indicate a difference in voice between the two races. 



Hume's Bush-Quail. 



Microperdix manipurensis. Lanz soibol, Manipuri. 



This bush-quail can really be called a grey quail, since its 

 prevailing colour above is slate, with no tinge of brown, but 

 diversified by black markings ; the under-surface is mottled with 

 buff and black, the buff predominating as large spots, almost 

 concealing the black groundwork. The legs are orange, and the 

 only difference between the cock and the hen is the dark reddish- 

 chocolate face of the former sex. 



In Manipur this bird is fairly common, but very hard to get, 

 or even to see, as it haunts high grass, and even after this is 

 burnt is still difficult to discover, owing to its dark colour 

 harmonizing with the burnt stubble. It affects the neighbour- 

 hood of water, and keeps in coveys which run closely packed. 



Eggs have been obtained in Manipur, but not preserved ; 

 they are marked with blotches of brown and black on a greenish 

 ground. Our knowledge of this quail is due entirely to Hume, 

 its discoverer, who got a few specimens with a great deal of 

 trouble in beating and cutting down huge quantities of the high 

 grassy cover wherein he observed them, and to Captain Wood, 

 who shot numbers of them as lately as 1899. 



Since this Mr. C. M. Inglis has procured specimens of a very 

 nearly allied species, named by Mr. Ogilvie Grant after him 

 Microperdix inglisi, in Goalpara ; the differences from the 

 Manipur bird are very slight, the comparative scantiness of the 

 black markings being the most noticeable. This form is also 

 suspected of occurring in the Bhutan Duars. Its Goalpara name 

 is Kala goondri. 



