MASON AND LEFROY. 233 



When they are in season the millets are I think their chief food 

 but they eat all kinds of grain grass, seeds, small fruit like those of 

 the Jharberi, and all kinds of small irsects especially beetles, bugs 

 and ants. Coturnix Colonel Tickell " It adheres to the paddy 

 fieldfi after the crops are cut, gleaning in stubble for grains left by 

 the reapers, and when these are exhausted, repairs to the fieldg 

 of pulse, vetch, &c. (urhur, chunna, moong, oorud, &c)., which 

 are about that time ripe, and feeds on the peas that fall from the 

 pods/' H. M. G. B. II, 137, 140. 



1356. C. coromandelica. Black-breasted or Rain Quail. Both 

 this and the Grey-quail are very partial to the grains of Cheenee, 

 a small millet cultivated extensively in Bengal during the hot wea- 

 ther and the rains. Jerd. B. I. Ill, 590. 



Their habits too are very similar, but the present species, on the 

 whole, is more of a grass bird than the grey-quail, and feeds more 

 on grass seeds ; and though of course found often in millet and other 

 crops, is less exclusively devoted to these, and feeds less on grain 

 than its cosmopolitan congener. Their chief staple of food is, I 

 think, grass seeds, but they eat also all kinds of grain and lentils, 

 and many insects, especially termites. I remember shooting one 

 that had eaten several of the scarlet velvet mite (Trombidium tinc- 

 torum or some such name) that appears so commonly at the com- 

 mencement of the rains, a thing that rather startled me, as I have 

 noticed that birds generally avoid these gorgeous morsels. H. M- 

 G. B. II, 152-153. 



Perdicula. Bush Quails. Seeds and insects. E. B. C. N. H., 

 223. 



1357. Perdicula asiatica. Jungle Bush-Quail. Feeding on 

 grain dropped by cattle. Jerd. B. I. Ill, 582. Their chief food 

 appears to be grass seeds and grains of millets. Ragi stubble is a 

 sure find for them ; but they eat any small seeds and grains, and 

 sometimes you find quantities of insects, ants and tiny coleoptera in 

 their crops. I am disposed, however, to think that they only eat 

 these latter when grain and seeds are scarce, for in numbers that 



