134 GAAIE BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



that of the hen of the ordinary quail, the feathers 

 there are long and pointed instead of short and 

 round, and the outer ones have rusty edges. The 

 young males also possess these whiskers at first. 



This quail inhabits Eastern Asia, Japan, and 

 China. It comes at times within our limits on its 

 winter migration, and no doubt often gets passed 

 over as a common quail. When Mr. Oates wrote 

 his excellent little work on the game birds of India, 

 two specimens were in the Biitish Museum from 

 our Empire ; both were hens, one coming from 

 Bhutan and the other from Karennee. The latter 

 had been procured by Major Wardlow Ramsay in 

 1874. Dr. Blanford, writing on the same subject 

 in the same year (1898) as Mr. Oates, stated that 

 he did not consider these specimens characteristic, 

 and thought it would be better to wait till a male 

 was recorded before including the bird as Indian. 

 Next year, however, Lieutenant H. H. Turner 

 shot another of the species in the Manipur Valley 

 in February, and submitted it to me for identifica- 

 tion with the rest of his Manipur birds. There was 

 no doubt that this bird was a Japanese quail, as 

 the pointed throat feathers were unmistakeable, 

 to say nothing of the richly-coloured flanks ; the 

 specimen is now in the British Museum. Lieuten- 

 ant Turner states [Journal Asiatic Society, 1899, 

 p. 244) that he saw a dozen or so of the birds, which 

 were driven out by the firing of some long grass ; 

 thinking they were only common quail, he did not 

 trouble more about them. It would therefore be as 

 well to examine carefully all supposed common 

 quails shot in Burma. The ordinary species is 

 admittedly rare there, and very possibly this one 

 takes its place. At tlie same time, intermediate 



