OPHRYSIA. 85 



primaries dark brown, with tawny bars on their outer webs ; tail with the 

 lateral feathers also barred ; supercilium from the base of the bill over the eye 

 bordered by dusky, and another shorter one from the gape ; cheeks, sides of 

 the face, chin and throat bright rufous ; under surface of the body, including 

 the sides of the neck white, with numerous cross bars of black ; flanks tinged 

 with rufous ; also the lower belly and thigh coverts. Bill dark slaty ; irides 

 brown ; orbits pale ; legs red. 



Lettgfk. — 67 to 7-25 inches; wing3-i to 3 5 ; tail P5 to rg ; tarsus 075 

 to rO; bill from gape 0*5 to 0-67. 



Hab.— li\\Q Punjab, N.-W. and Central Provinces, Central India, Raj- 

 pootana, Eastern Madras districts, Coimbatore, INIysore, throughout the 

 Deccan, in Bundelkund, Deesa, the Panch IMahals, Kutch, Sambhur Lake, 

 Jodhpore, and Mount Abu, but not in Sind nor anywhere in Lower Bengal. 

 Affects rocky hills with low scrub jungle. Though very difficult to shoot, 

 either with or without dogs, the Rock Bush Quail affords excellent practice 

 both for the eye, and precision of firing at rapid short flight birds. Like other 

 Bush Quails, the flesh is white, but insipid. Jerdon's recipe is to get "one to 

 two pounds of the best beefsteak, then take twelve Bush Quails nicely plucked 

 and cleaned, cram a dessert spoonful of pate de foie gras inside each bird, and 

 wrap each up in a thin slice of bacon, add a small tin of truffles, half a bottle 

 of button Mushrooms, six hard-boiled eggs, each cut in half, sauces, con- 

 diments, &c., selon le gout, and fill in with rich stock (a couple of hares boiled 

 down with a shin bone will do famously) ; then, if your cook makes a good 

 crust and the pie is baked slowly and properly, you will find, as Jerdon says, 

 that Bush Quail are very good in a pie. Breeds from August to December 

 and again in INLirch. Eggs. 6 — 7, of the type of the Jungle Bush Quail. 



Gen. Oplirysia.— G/qy. 



General characters the same as those of Perdicula. 



110. Ophrysia SUperciliOSa (7- E. Gray), Hume, Str. F. vii. 

 p. 434; id. and Marsh,, Gaine Birds ii. p. 105 ; Gould, B. Asia, pi.; 

 Murray, Avif. Brit. Lid. ii. p. 563, No. 1233. — The Mountain Quail. 



Lores, chin, throat and sides of the face and ear coverts deep black ; fore- 

 head and a broad stripe above and behind the eye silvery grey, the feathers of 

 the forehead paler shafted at base, and darker on the shaft towards the tip ; 

 hind head and nape light greyish brown ; upper surface of the body, tail and 

 under surface ohve, tinged with grey on the breast and abdomen ; all the 

 feathers of both surfaces margined on each side with a line of black ; under 

 tail coverts black, every feather with a small tooth-like mark of white on each 

 side near the base, a similar but larger mark about two-thirds from the base, 

 and two coalescing oval spots of white at the tips ; bill reddish ; tarsi brown. 

 Total length 9 inches; bill 0-62 ; wing 3*5 ; tail 275 ; tarsi 1*33. 



