EAIN-QUAIL 266 



are given to both, though the Telugu speakers call this bird 

 Chinna yellichi, and the Tamils Kade, while Chanac is used in 

 Nepal. This species, although to a great extent locally migratory, 

 is a purely Indian and Burmese bird ; but it does not extend 

 to the confines of our Empire, being absent from Kashmir in 

 one direction and Tenasserim in the other, while it is not found 

 in Ceylon, attempts to introduce it (and the common quail also) 

 having apparently failed. 



Its name, rain-quail, has reference to its appearance in certain 

 districts coinciding with the opening of the rains ; these are the 

 drier parts of Upper India and Burma, and it visits these to 

 escape, apparently, from the damp in the more low-lying and 

 rainy tracts, where, as in Lower Bengal, it is common enough 

 in the dry months. It is generally a bird of the plains, but on 

 the advent of the rains will penetrate up to 6,000 feet in the 

 Himalayas and Nilgiris. In the Deccan it is resident, and also 

 in parts of Southern India. 



It frequents the same sort of low cover as suits the larger 

 quails, and the two may often be flushed in the same locality ; 

 but although it comes freely into grassy compounds, it is not 

 quite so much addicted to cultivation, preferring wild grass- 

 seed to grain. It also feeds on insects, and Hume records 

 having found one which had fed on the scarlet velvety mite, 

 a remarkable article of diet, as he says, usually avoided by 

 birds. 



On the whole, however, there is nothing noteworthy in its 

 ways to distinguish it from the common quail, except its very 

 distinct two-syllabled note ; it is just as pugnacious, is kept for 

 fighting, and fattened for food in the same way. Hume thought, 

 however, it was slightly inferior as a table bird. Like the 

 common quail it is found in pairs or singly, not in coveys. Its 

 breeding season lasts about half the year, from April onwards, 

 sometimes even to November, and the eggs are in some cases 

 very like those of the common quail, but they are smaller, and 

 vary enormously, some being finely peppered and freckled, and 

 some marbled. The ground colour also varies from a decided 

 buff to nearly white, and the markings may be blackish, olive, 

 or purplish brown. But only one shade is found on one egg, and 



