i6o POULTRY AND GAME BIRDS. 



all you will ever see of it. But you may hear it. In 

 the morning and evening, and even at dead of night, it 

 gives vent to some feeling in one of the strangest 

 sounds ever uttered by bird. Jerdon describes it as " a 

 loud, purring call." To me it suggests a nail drawn 

 across the teeth of a sonorous comb of endless length. 

 If it proceeds from the lungs of the bird, then the 

 mystery is still unsolved how the quantity of air which 

 must be required to keep up such a sustained effort can 

 be compressed into so small a body. One of the eccen- 

 tricities of the Bustard Quail is that the female makes 

 all the noise. The male, as far as I know, is silent. 

 He, is smaller than she, and though I cannot say 

 whether he is literally henpecked, there can be little 

 doubt that he is l sair hauden doun.' He has to stay 

 at home and mind the babies while she goes gadding 

 about and fighting with her female neighbours. This 

 is not scandal, but a fact. She differs from him in 

 having a good deal of black on the head, throat 

 and breast. The general colour of both is reddish 

 brown, marked- with a game pattern of fine, black, 

 cross lines, with buff edges to the feathers. I am 

 speaking of the species which Jerdon calls the Black- 

 breasted Bustard Quail (T-urnix taigoor). There are 

 two others, but this is the one that makes the curious 

 noise described above, and the only one, I think, that 

 is likely to be found in Bombay. I once came upon 

 its nest in June, not far from Bombay. It was a most 

 artistic structure for a Quail to build, completely dom- 

 ed over with fine grass, with only a little hole at one 

 side for the owner to go in and out by. I did not catch 

 the bird, so it may have been one of the other species, 

 but there is not much difference. 



