400 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



foand almost equally often in bamboo jtingle or in thin tree forests 

 which have lots of low grass or other light undergrowth. 



In North Cachar it was extraordinarily numerous, and one could 

 not go along the narrow village paths for an hour's walk or round 

 any field of Hill-rice without putting up several. In the plains 1 

 have nowhere seen them so common as this, and Hume, writing of 

 the Burmese form, lolumbi'pes in comparison with the Indian form, 

 taijooT, says : 



" They seem to me to be more sparsely distributed than is 



the Indian bird. Of the latter you might in many places, 



with good dogs and small charges, bag by hard work at least 



a dozen, and possibly twenty couple in a day, w^hereas, from 



what I know myself, and from what I hear from others, I 



doubt if you could anywhere shoot even half the number of 



'pluinbijpes, fag as you might." 



I think, however, there are some places in North Oachar where 



one could get as many as twenty couple in a day if any one ever 



desired to get them, but, of course, it would be necessary to cover a 



lot of coTintr)^, have some useful dogs to help, and also hold straight. 



They are not really as easy birds to kill as one would imagine, 



until their ways are learned. They generally get up very close to the 



shooter, often at one's very feet, and they then buzz straight oflf for 



some twenty yards or so, and tumble headlong into the grass again. 



They fly at quite a good pace, though perfectly straight, in fact, 



very much as a common Quail does ; but they are so tiny that if fired 



at close, and hit, there is nothing left to pick up, . and if time is 



allowed for them to get a fair distance, they take advantage of it to 



make one of their disconcerting dives into the grass. Many men will 



not agree with the dictum that there is no sport in shooting them, as 



one has to be very quick to kill these little birds with any certainty, 



and, once missed, there is little chance of ever seeing them flushed 



again. Where the grass and bushes are extensive, even good dogs 



find it a hard job to flush a bird twice ; but I think they generally 



rise fairly well the first time, though even then not until they are 



almost trodden underfoot by the gunner or caught by his dog. 



It is a wonderful little runner, and seems to be able to keep 

 ahead of the fastest dog in grass or bush if the latter tries to follow 

 it up by scent, and if the dog tries to rush it, it just slips to one 

 side, and allows the animal to shoot past it. I had a very good 

 example of this once when shooting some of these Bustard Quail for 

 specimens in a patch of grass half eaten down by village buffaloes, 

 and intersected in all directions by small paths and buffalo tracks. I 

 had two Bhutia dogs with me, both keen sportsmen, with excellent 

 noses but impetuous temperaments, and the dogs and I had all seen 

 three or four of these Bustard Quail driven into this patch from 

 others a few yards away. The patch was not 10 yards wide by 50 



