CEYLON PIGEONS AND GAME BIRDS. BHI. 
Distribution.—Found here and there in the low-country and 
in the hills up to about 3,500 feet. Rare in Southern India, 
commoner in Bengal and the plains of Northern India ; 
ranges eastwards through Burma to South-eastern Asia and 
Southern China. 
Habits.—Nowhere in the Island is this species very common ; 
it is occasionally met with in damp grass, especially round the 
edges of tanks and in rough grassy paddy fields. The breeding 
season is generally about May. Four to six eggs are laid ona 
little pad of grass in a hollow of the ground amongst damp 
herbage. I once, however, gota clutch of seven eggs in January 
in the North-Central Province, from a nest which was a pad of 
grass lined with soft rootlets and moored to the floating stems 
of a water grass in abouta foot of water at the head of a tank. 
The eggs are dumpy ovals of brownish-olive, thinly speckled 
with very dark brown dots. Their average measurement is 
-98 by °76 
CoTURNIX COROMANDELICA (Blanford, Vol. IV., pp. 116 
and 486 ; not in Legge). 
The Black-breasted or Rain Quail. 
Description.—Male : the crown and nape black with brown 
edges and a buff streak down the centre ; a white stripe from 
the forehead over each eye to the hind-neck ; back, rump, 
and upper tail coverts mottled black and light brown with 
broad whitish-buff shaft-stripes ; scapulars and wing coverts 
sandy-brown with buff shaft-stripes and markings ; primary 
quills drab-brown. The throat and fore-neck are white ; 
down the chin and centre of the throat is a black stripe which 
crosses a curved black band running across the throat to the 
ear coverts ; another black stripe runs also to the ear coverts 
from the gape of the bill, passing below the eye. The breast 
and sides of the body are rufous-buff with broad black median 
stripes ; in old birds almost the whole breast is black. The 
centre of the abdomen and the lower tail coverts are buff. 
In females the chin and throat are buff, while the breast is 
rufous-brown with buff shaft-stripes and dark brown spots. 
Bill in males blackish, in females brownish horn ; iris 
brown ; legs pale fleshy. 
