EXfc ALF AtTORI A . 113 



Coloration. Male. Upper parts brown, with vermiculations and 

 blotches of black ; except in very old birds, there is a narrow 

 whitish median streak on the crown and nape, and the feathers of 

 the back and rump have conspicuous buff shaft-lines, broader on 

 the latter, but all these pale markings disappear gradually with 

 age, and the brown becomes tinged with dark bluish grey on the 

 forehead, sides of the crown, wing-coverts, and upper tail-coverts ; 

 some of the median and larger secondary coverts are broadly edged 

 externally with chestnut, but this character appears sometimes 

 wanting ; quills brown ; tail-feathers slaty blue, more or less 

 broadly edged with chestnut, entirely chestnut in old birds ; 

 sides of head slaty grey, browner in young birds ; lower cheeks, 



Fig. 22. Head of E. ckincnsia, <$ . \. 



chin, and throat black, enclosing on each side a white cheek-stripe, 

 broader behind, from the base of the lower mandible ; fore neck 

 white, edged behind with black running up on each side, growing 

 narrow and terminating close to the ear-coverts ; upper breast, 

 sides of breast, and flanks slaty bluish grey, remainder of lower 

 parts chestnut. In old birds the chestnut area is larger and 

 occupies the greater part of the breast and flanks. 



Females resemble young males above, but the scapulars and 

 wing-coverts are more distinctly barred with black, and the whitish 

 median crown-stripe and the shaft-stripes on the back are con- 

 spicuous at all ages ; forehead, supercilia, and sides of head rufous 

 buff ; ear-coverts browner ; chin and throat whitish ; rest of lower 

 parts buff, rafous on the fore neck and barred with black on the 

 breast and flanks, the bars growing fainter with age; tail brown, 

 with black and buff markings. 



Bill black, plumbeous beneath; irides crimson in the male, 

 brown in females and young ; legs bright yellow, claws brownish 

 (Hume}. 



Length about 5-5 ; tail 1 ; wing 2-75 : tarsus '85 ; bill from 

 gape '5. 



Distribution. In India this Quail is common in Bengal and ranges 

 throughout the plains near the base of the Himalayas and in the 

 lower ranges as far west as the neighbourhood of Simla. It also 

 occurs sporadically throughout Orissa, Chutia Nagpur, and the 

 Central Provinces east of about 80 E. long., and it has been met 

 with occasionally in Bombay and Southern India (by Jerdon in the 

 Carnatic, by Capt. Bidie in Chingleput, and by Mr. H. Wenden 



YOL. IT. I 



