Quails. 83 



about stooping, picking here and there, 

 now stopping to scratch, now, as some 

 sound reaches them, standing straight 

 up with upstretched necks, and again, 

 alarmed, gliding out of sight almost like 

 rats. 



" When they are in season, the millets 

 are, I think, their chief food ; but they 

 eat all kinds of grain, grass-seeds, small 

 fruits, like those of fasjharberi) and all 

 kinds of small insects, especially beetles, 

 bugs, and ants. 



" During the middle of the day, par- 

 ticularly if the sun be hot, they rest 

 somewhere in the shade, and are then 

 so unwilling to rise that you may almost 

 catch them by the hand, while dogs at 

 times actually do pounce on them. But 

 except during the heat of the day, although 

 they are tame birds, and allow a near 

 approach, and although they will, where 

 the ground permits it, run a good deal, 

 they are not usually difficult to flush the 

 first or second time, but after having 

 been twice raised they are very unwilling 

 to fly a third time." 



The Grey Quail seems to breed in 

 India during March and April, and the 

 few eggs of this species in the Hume 

 Collection were taken in those months in 



