THE QUAIL 
Coturnix communis 
Arabic, Salwa 
Plumage—Upper parts brown marked with grey, rufous, 
and black, a buff line over eye and on crown of head, a 
semicircular collar of dark brown on throat; lower parts 
lighter, streaked with black down centre of feathers, beak 
brown, legs pale warm brown, eyes hazel. Total length, 
7'5 inches. 
THE call of the male Quail is one of those strange 
sounds that have around it much of the halo 
that the song of the Cuckoo has at home, be- 
cause it marks a definite date—the passing of 
winter and the coming of summer. For the 
ordinary traveller this call, which by some has 
been rendered as sounding like “ What we whee,” 
is all that he will ever know of the bird’s presence, 
as it is curiously skulking in habits, and never 
rises unless suddenly alarmed by one’s walking 
through the cover in which it hides. Personally 
I agree with a friend who said the sound was 
identical with the sort of cheeping call of a young 
turkey poult, but all descriptions of birds’ songs 
I hold to be rather vain. Each one for himself 
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