264 INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



Japanese Quail. 



Coturnix japonica. Udzura, Japanese. 



The male Japanese quail is easily distinguished from the 

 male common or grey quail, to which it is very closely allied, 

 by having a brick-red throat with no dark marking or only a 

 central streak. In the hens the difference is chiefly to be found 

 in the structure, not the colour, of the feathers of this part, the 

 Japanese bird having the throat-feathers noticeably long and 

 pointed at the tips ; at the sides of the throat these elongated 

 feathers are edged with reddish. In both sexes the reddish tint 

 on the flanks is brighter than that found in the same place on 

 the common quail. 



Hens of this species have been shot in Bhutan, Karennee, 

 and Manipur, and as this is the ordinary quail of the mainland 

 of far eastern Asia, as well as Japan, it is quite probably a 

 common winter visitor to the eastern parts of our Empire. The 

 only noteworthy difference in the ways of this bird and the 

 common quail appears to consist in the note of the male, which 

 is said to be deep and hollow, of several rapidly-uttered syllables. 



Rain-Quail. 



Coturnix coromandelica. Chota hater, Hindustani. 



Although the cock rain-quail is noticeably distmguished by 

 the black streaks — in old birds coalescing into a black patch — 

 on his more warmly-tinted breast, and by the purity and dis- 

 tinctness of the white and black of his throat, the species is 

 very commonly confounded with the common quail, and it must 

 be admitted that the hens are almost exactly alike. In this 

 bird, however, there is none of the light chequering on the 

 pinion-quills in either sex, and it is smaller altogether than the 

 common quail, not exceeding two ounces in weight. 



When used to it one can always pick out even the hens, 

 without looking at the quills, by their brighter colouring and 

 smaller size, which is conspicuous enough to distinguish this 

 bird even in flight. The same native names, however, usually 



