GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 1 33 



ings varying a good deal. They may be found in 

 March and April. In the latter month this bird 

 was observed to be breeding abundantly about 

 Nowshera in 1872, which was an exceptionally back- 

 ward year, so that the quail had evidently decided 

 in many cases to make the best of things where 

 they were and not go north, since they should have 

 all been out of India a month later in the ordinary 

 way. 



Their haunts are in crops and the stubble of thesej 

 grass, bush jungle, any low cover in short, and they 

 afford more good shooting than any other bird of 

 this family in India. Their flight is low, straight 

 and swift, and one has been seen to escape from a 

 harrier by sheer speed ; but then a harrier is not a 

 very swift hawk. They are often very unwilling 

 to rise, and I have been heard of one being trodden 

 upon, which is what one might call falling a victim 

 to a policy of laissez-faire. 



The Japanese Quail. 



Coturnix japonica, Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, 

 Vol. IV, p. 116. 



Native names : — Udzura, Japanese ; prob- 

 ably called Ngon in Burma. 



This species much resembles the common grey 

 quail, but both sexes of it have a richer chestnut 

 tint on the flanks. This of itself would not be much 

 to go by, but the male has the face and throat 

 brick-red, without any trace of the. dark markings 

 found there even in the rare reddish-throated 

 variety of the common quaU ; and the female is still 

 more distinct, for although ker throat is white like 



