THE



Hvicultural /llbagasme,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



VOL. IV. — No. 37. All rishis reserved. NOVEMBER, 1897.


THE CHINESE QUAIL


Excalfadoria chinensis, Linn.

By Arthur G. Butler, Ph.D.


This pretty little species occurs in many parts of India,

Burma, Ceylon, China, the Philippines, Malaysia and southwards

to Australia : the Rev. G. Brown also obtained it in the islands

of the Duke of York group.


It will be unnecessary to give a description of the

plumage, the beauty of which has earned it several trivial

names : that by which it has long been known to scientists is

" the Blue-breasted Quail ;" to aviculturists however it is best

known by the title employed above.


Respecting the wild life of the species, as observed by

him in India, Jerdon says, — " In lyower Bengal it is tolerably

abundant in damp grassy meadows, the edges of Indigo fields,

and in the grass on road-sides : and in Purneah, in the month of

July, it was the only Quail I observed. It breeds in this month,

the eggs being pale olive-green. When the young are full grown

they disperse all over the country, and this dispersion is greatly

assisted, and in many parts, perhaps, caused by the heavy

inundations to which a great part of the country in Bengal is

annually subjedted, generally in August or September."


Speaking of the species in Ceylon (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1872),

Mr. K. W. H. Holdsworth says : — " I have seen this bird from

Kandy and the cinnamon-gardens at Colombo ; and Layard says

it is common in the south." Governor Ussher notes it in Borneo

(Proc. Zool. Soc, 1879) as tolerably plentiful in open spaces in

short thick grass ; it is met with up to May or the beginning of

June in little bevies ; after that I observed them in pairs. They

are of rapid flight, and are hard to flush a second time." Dr.

Sharpe (loc. cit.) describes the eggs, sent by Mr. Low, as varying

from dark olive-brown with few black dots, to pale olive-brown


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