The Game-birds and Rails 



403 



r•^*e. 



[licijcit's Park. 



Flwlo hi) ir. P. Daado, F.Z.!i.\ 



HIMALAYAN MClNAL. 



In some parts of India this bird has been exterminated, owing to the 



demands of the plnme-market. 



spot and saw the nest indeed, but the eggs and bird \\i 

 she had removed her eggs ; and lie found her, before - 

 he left the field, sitting under the hedge upon 

 twenty-one eggs. . . . The round of ploughing had 

 occupied about twenty minutes, in which time she, 

 probably aided by the cock bird, had removed the 

 twenty-one eggs to a distance of about forty yards." 



The Eed-legged Partridges, their allies the 

 Fkancolin.s, and the Grey Partridges are all ground- 

 birds ; the Tree-partridges, as the name implies, are 

 not, or at least less completely so — hence their 

 mention here. They are natives of the Indo-Chinese 

 countries, and the islands of Java, Borneo, and Formosa. 



The Quail is a little-known British bird, very like 

 a small partridge in ajjpearance. Enormous numbers. 

 Professor Newton tells us, " are netted on the Continent, 

 especially in the spring migration. The captives are 

 exposed in the poulterers' shops, confined in long, 

 cloth-covered cages, with a feeding-trough in front." 

 The bulk " of these are males, which are the first to 

 arrive, and advantage is taken of this circumstance by 

 the bird-catchers, who decoy hundreds into their nets 

 by imitating the call-note of the female. It has been 

 stated that in the small island of Capri, in the Bay 

 of Naples, 160,000 have been netted in a single 

 season, and even larger numbers are on record." An 

 idea of the vast numbers which travel together in 



The Common Partridge is the more 

 abundant of the two species. Tliough more 

 sober in coloration, it is still a beautiful 

 bird. The " horse-shoe " mark, borne on the 

 breast, so characteristic of this bird, is not 

 confined to the males, as is generally believed. 

 " Yielding," says Professor Newton, "perhaps 

 in economic importance to the red grouse, 

 what may be called the social infiuenee of 

 the partridge is greater tlian that excited by 

 any other wild bird." 



This bird displaj-s gi'eat courage and 

 affection in defence of its eggs or young. 

 A story illustrating this is told of a gentle- 

 man near Spilsbv, in Lincolnshire, who, 

 " whilst superintending his ploughmen, saw a 

 partridge glide off lier nest, so near the foot 

 of one of his plough-horses tliat he tliought 

 the eggs must.be cruslied ; this, liowever, 

 was not the case. He saw tlie old bird 



return to her nest the instant he left the 

 spot. It was evident that the next round 

 of the plough must bury the eggs and nest 

 in the furrow. His surprise was great when, 

 returning with the plough, he came to the 



gone. An idea struck him that 



Pfioto Oi/ It . 1-'. jjaiiao, i\Z.8.] [licijciit'i Park. 



HIMAL.iYAN IIONAL. 



The female of the moual is quite soberly clad. 



