BUSTAED-QUAIL 267 



districts, and absent from the dry regions of the north-west. 

 It ascends the Himalayas into the temperate region, and in 

 Lower Bengal, where so many widely distributed birds are 

 wanting, it is quite common in the cold weather. To the foot- 

 hills of the Himalayas and districts adjacent it is a rainy-season 

 visitant, and immense numbers arrive in Pegu at the beginning of 

 May. The favourite haunts of these tiny birds are open, moist 

 grass-land, and they frequent the grassed lands of paddy fields, the 

 paddy-stubble itself, and scrub-jungle. They feed on grass-seeds 

 and insects, but will also take millet. Where bigger quail are 

 scarce they may be found worth shooting, if anyone cares to 

 expend powder on birds which do not weigh at most more than 

 a couple of ounces ; I never heard of anyone eating them. 



Judging from their habits in captivity, they are to a consider- 

 able extent nocturnal ; but they may be seen feeding outside 

 of the grass in the early morning, and are not very shy, though 

 when once flushed they much object to showing themselves 

 again. They nest in Ceylon and in the Malay Peninsula as 

 early as March, but further north in June and later, up to 

 even the middle of August in the Sub-Himalayan tracts. The 

 nest is the scanty affair one expects from a quail, and is placed 

 among grass, containing about six eggs, buff or pale drab 

 generally, somewhat peppered with brown. Considering the 

 size of the producer, they are remarkably large, many being 

 an inch in the larger diameter ; the incubation period is three 

 weeks, and the minute chicks are dark with pale streaks. 



In Ceylon this pigmy quail is known as Pandura or Wenella- 

 watuwa, and as Gohal-hutai in Oudh. Kaneli is also a Nepalese 

 name. 



Bustard-Quail. 



Turnix 'pugnax. Gundlu, Hindustani. 



This quaint little bird, which may be easily taken at first 

 sight for a quail, is yet at once distinguishable from our true 

 quails by having no hind-toe, which apphes to all the members of 

 its family found with us. The said family is quite a distinct one, 

 and the birds composing it are often called in books hemipodes — 



