268 INDIAN SPOETING BIRDS 



a silly name, because it means " half-foot" and only one toe out 

 of the normal four is missing. Nevertheless, it is better than 

 button-quail or bustard-quail, because the birds are neither 

 quails nor bustards. The present species is the most widely 

 distributed in our limits, being only absent from elevations over 

 7,000 feet in the Himalayas, and from parts of the north-west ; 

 for, though found in Cutch and Kajputana, it does not occur 

 in Sind and the Punjab. It extends across the rest of Asia 

 to Formosa, including the Malay Islands. Hume figures the 

 Eastern race as distinct, but it is not now so considered ; it is 

 merely larger and of a less reddish brown. 



It may be distinguished from the other and less widely 

 distributed hemipodes by its bluish-grey beak and legs, which 

 mark it off from the yellow-legged species, and by being barred 

 with black on the breast, which distinguishes it from the 

 little button-quail, which also has a blue beak and frequently blue 

 legs also. The hen is larger than the cock, as in all this family, 

 and also more strikingly coloured, having a black patch running 

 down the throat and breast. 



This little bird has the general habits of the true quails, 

 being found among grass and bush-cover, and avoiding high 

 forest and arid tracts ; it also feeds on seeds, herbage, and 

 insects. I suspect it is more insectivorous than quails proper, 

 its larger bill enabling it to manage insects of bigger size ; it 

 appears to care little for grain. Hume thinks that these 

 hemipodes do not drink, but I have seen them do so in captivity, 

 and the fact that they are not to be seen drinking when wild 

 probably only means that they quench their thirst with dew 

 instead of resorting to bodies of water for drinking purposes. 

 Their more insectivorous habits — if I am right about these — 

 would also probably imply greater independence of water, for 

 it is animal-feeding birds which can generally best dispense 

 with this, though among beasts the reverse holds good. 



These birds are generally solitary or at most in pairs, except 

 when a brood of young is about ; they lie very close and fly only 

 for a few yards at a time, after which they are almost impossible 

 to raise again, and it takes a smart dog to get them up at all. 

 Nevertheless, they migrate a little, but only according to circum- 



