232 QUAIL. 



and when alarmed or enraged, their cry, he says, resembles 

 the word 'guillah.' 



For a nest the female scrapes out a small hollow in the 

 ground, into which she collects a few bits of dry grass, straw, 

 clover, and such like. She alone sits, and very closely, on 

 the eggs, but the male assists her in the care of the young. 



The eggs are yellowish white, orange-coloured white, or 

 greenish, blotted or speckled with brown. They vary much 

 in number, from six to fourteen, or even, it is said, twenty, 

 though generally ten. Incubation lasts about three weeks. 

 The young follow the dam as soon as they are hatched. 



Male; length, eight inches; bill, greyish brown above, greenish 

 blue beneath, the tip yellowish: iris, hazel; over it, and 

 extending down the side of the neck, is a band of yellowish 

 white, formed by marks on the centres of the feathers. The 

 crown, with a narrow band of yellowish white, formed by 

 marks on the centre of each feather, and neck on the back, 

 black, the feathers edged with brown; nape, a mixture of 

 brownish black, light red, and yellowish grey; chin and 

 throat, pale chesnut brown; on the latter are two crescents 

 of brownish black, with a black patch at the base, its sides 

 light yellowish brown or reddish, spotted with black and 

 yellowish white; breast, above, light yellowish brown or 

 reddish, with straw-coloured shaft lines; on the middle 

 and lower part pale yellowish white; and on the sides light 

 brownish red, each feather with a central band of white, 

 edged with brownish black; the back is variegated with 

 brownish black, light red, and yellowish grey, with four 

 longitudinal bands of yellowish white pointed streaks. 



The wings, of twenty feathers, have the first three of 

 nearly equal length, but the first a little longer than the 

 third, the second the longest; they expand to one foot two 

 inches in width; greater and lesser wing coverts, pale rufous 

 brown, streaked with brown and yellowish grey; primaries, 

 dusky brown, banded on the outer webs with pale red, the 

 first one with its outer edge white. The tail, of fourteen 

 feathers, dark brown, barred with whitish; upper tail coverts, 

 rufous brown; under tail coverts, pale yellowish white. Legs, 

 toes, and claws, greyish yellow. 



The female is paler in general colour; the neck is without 

 the crescents and the black patch: a dusky streak passes down 

 from behind the eyes; chin and throat, pale yellowish white; 

 the breast is marked with small dark spots on each side of 



