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QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 19 
Grass seeds only were found in the stomach. 
These Birds do not frequent cultivated lands, but are found all over Dukhun on the 
general level of the country, amidst rocks and low bushes: they rise in coveys of from 
ten to twenty, or more, from under the feet, with a startling suddenness and bustle ; 
and the young sportsman is perplexed in selecting his bird. They are gregarious, and 
I infer polygamous, as I never saw them solitary, or in pairs. Flesh perfectly white. 
This is the species used for Quail fights by the natives, and not Cot. dactylisonans 
or textilis. 
5. Corurnix Pentau. 
Mountain Quail. 
Tab. III. 
Cot. supra saturate brunnea ; infra rufescenti-albida nigro fasciata ; ventre crissoque albido- 
ferrugineis ; interscapulio scapularibusque nigro maculatis, plumarum rhachibus dilute 
flavis ; remigibus brunneis pallide ferrugineo maculatis ; strigd superciliari sordide 
albd ; mento rufescente. 
Foem. Infra rufescens, haud fasciata ; plumarum rhachibus albis. 
Trides ochraceo-brunnee ; rostrum rufescenti-brunneum ; pedes flavescentes. 
Long. corporis 5-3, unc. ; caude 1+2,. 
Bill as in the last species, but stouter, and reddish fuscous instead of black ; tongue as 
in other Quails ; legs yellowish, with ared tinge ; tarsi of males with tubercles. Whole 
upper surface of a rich reddish dark brown, maculated rather than barred with obscure 
rufous. The feathers of the scapulars, wing-coverts, and secondaries, are ornamented in 
a remarkable manner : most of the feathers of the scapulars have a yellow or tawny cross 
on a velvet black ground, the lines of which cross swell or thicken at the intersection ; 
the feathers of the wing-coverts and secondaries have one transverse arm of this cross 
shortened or wanting ; and instead of the whole field of the feathers being black, this 
colour is confined in most of the feathers, though not in all, to the lower interior inter- 
section of the arms, the remaining three places of the cross being rufous brown. Shafts 
of the feathers on the back neck and back white. Tail barred with a few narrow 
bars of black. A reddish white line over each eye edged with black ; also a faint 
whitish line going back from the gape. Throat deep rufous. Whole under surtace 
white, barred with parallel narrow black bars, the bars disappearing towards the vent 
and the ground colour becoming rufescent. Primary quills spotted on their outer web 
with tawny. 
The female differs from the male in the whole of the under surface, from the chin to 
the vent, being brownish dilute rufous, part of the shaft of each feather being white: in 
some specimens there is a faint disposition to transverse black bars on the breast. The 
D2 
