GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. I3I 



common in Bengal. Ordinarily only one man in 

 the Calcutta bazaar had quails, and he got the 

 birds from up-country and kept and fed them 

 for months, being a resident and considerable 

 dealer, unlike the men who only came in the 

 winter to sell birds more or less locally captured. 



The quails come in across the sea from the west 

 before the end of August, and about a fortnight 

 later the main body from the north arrive. At 

 the end of February they begin to draw northwards 

 again, and if the south of India has not come up 

 to their expectations, the north will be full of them 

 in March. Some will linger in the south for a time 

 as others had done in the north, but in any case 

 hardly any will stay behind permanently and breed 

 in India, 



They migrate at night as a rule, though stray 

 specimens may be seen, at sea at any rate, by day. 

 Mr. Hume describes how on one moonlight night 

 in April, a few miles from Mussoorie, a huge cloud 

 of them, "many hundred yards in length and 

 fifty yards I suppose in breadth," passed over him 

 quite low down. That the quail is more or less 

 nocturnal I have little doubt. A specimen which 

 I kept years ago in my rooms at Oxford was quite 

 as active by night as by day, whereas ordinary 

 birds will go to roost in a room quite irrespective 

 of the artificial light of lamps or gas. For the 

 same reason quails are very unsuitable inmates 

 for a mixed aviary, unless they have a wing cut, 

 as they will get restless at night and fly up against 

 the roof, to the detriment not only of their own 

 personal appearance, but also of the peace and 

 happiness of the other inmates of the place. 



