BUSTARD-QUAIL 269 



stances, to avoid cold in the hills or floods in the plains. Their 

 disposition is quite different from that of the true quails, as they 

 are singularly tame in captivity, instead of wildly nervous like 

 nearly all true game birds ; and probably quails are serious 

 enemies to them, as I have found that hemipodes of any sort, 

 taken out of a dealer's crate of quails, are generally much plucked, 

 just as the tiny blue- breasted quail is. This may perhaps be the 

 reason why this bu'd frequents gardens so much. 



But the most remarkable point about this bird and its kin is 

 the peculiar reversal of their sex relations. The hen, as we 

 have seen, is the larger and finer bird ; she is also the fighter, 

 and is constantly captured by the natives as a fighting-bird, the 

 attraction being another female in a cage, while males are never 

 so caught. So well is the distinction known that the two sexes 

 have different names in more than one language, the cock in 

 Telugu being Koladu, and the hen Piirecl, while in Tamil be is 

 Anhadeh, and the hen Kurimg kadeh. In the Malay countries, 

 too, the name of the bird, Pee-ijoo, is applied in contempt to 

 a hen-pecked man, for the cock bustard quail not only does not 

 fight, but makes the nest and sits on the eggs. The nest varies 

 from a mere "scrape" to a proper though loose structure made 

 of dry grass, and often domed over. It is commonly found in 

 the Darjeeling tea gardens in May and June, but in the plains 

 the breeding season is later, and extends to September in 

 Burma. As, however, eggs have been taken in March at the 

 south end of the Malay peninsula, the birds may breed here 

 and there almost all the year. 



Only four eggs are laid, at any rate as a rule ; they are short, 

 and may show a tendency to the "peg-top" shape; they are 

 glossy and minutely peppered all over on a dirty-white ground, 

 and generally blotched with larger markings as well ; they are 

 about an inch long — i.e., large for the size of the bird — which is 

 much smaller than a common quail. 



The note of the bird, chiefly given out by the hen, is a purring 

 sound according to Mr. Seth Smith, who has studied the species 

 in captivity, bat Hutton says, speaking of it in the Dun, that 

 it has a pleasing, ringing note ; he also says it is brought in large 

 numbers for sale, but this was not the case in Calcutta in my 



