THE COMMON EUROPEAN QUAIL. 331 



Davison remarks : " This species is always found in small parties of six 

 or eight or more, males and females, keeping to the dense forest and never 

 venturing into the open, living on berries, seeds, tender shoots and leaves, 

 and insects of various kinds. It does not scratch about nearly so much as 

 the Arboricolas, and is much quicker and more lively in its movements, 

 much like a Quail, running hither and thither. They rise well before 

 a dog ; but it is hard to flush them without. Their note is a soft, mellow, 

 pleasant whistle, which is chiefly heard in the morning, but which they 

 also utter when calling to each other after they have been separated/' 

 An allied Partridge is Melanoperdix nigra, found in the Malay peninsula. 



Subfamily COTUENICIN.E. 



Genus COTUKNIX, Bonn. 



686. COTURNIX COMMUNIS. 

 THE COMMON EUROPEAN QUAIL. 



Tetrao coturnix, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 278. Coturnix communis, Bonn. Tabl. 

 Enc. Metli. p. 217 ; Jerd. B. 2nd. 'ii. p. 586 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 649 ; 

 Bl. B. Burm. p. 151 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 396 j Dresser, Birds Eur. 

 vii. p. 143, pi. ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 756 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 447 

 Crtpps, S. F. vii. p. 298; Hume, S. F. viii. p. Ill; Scully, S. F. viii. p. 350; 

 Hume $ Marsh. Game Birds, ii. p. 133, pi. ; Hume, S. F. x. p. 236 (note). 



Description. Male. Feathers of the forehead, crown and nape black 

 edged with rufous ; a narrow coronal streak and a broad supercilium pale 

 buff; upper plumage a mixture of chestnut, buff and black, with long, 

 pointed streaks of yellowish white ; a broad band down the chin and throat, 

 expanding on the throat and running up laterally on either side the head 

 to the ear-coverts, black ; sides of the chin and head white, the ear-coverts 

 more or less rufous ; a band of white parallel to and adjoining the cross 

 throat-band ; breast rufous blotched with chestnut and black, and with 

 the shafts whitish ; lower plumage pale buff, the sides of the body dashed 

 with chestnut and black, and with large white central streaks. 



The female is very similar, but wants the black on the throat. The 

 breast also is paler and more marked with black. 



