GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 139 



though they take almost as long to hatch as common 

 fowls, they mature with remarkable rapidity ; Mr. 

 Meade-Waldo, who was the first to breed them in 

 England, found that his young cocks, when only 

 just over a month old, had already assumed the 

 proper plumage of their sex, and were actually 

 crowing and calling their little sisters to feed ! 

 It is therefore very obvious that, though this mini- 

 kin quail can hardly be regarded as game, it is pre- 

 eminently suited for a pet ; ordinary bird-seed keeps 

 it well, with the addition of a few insects and 

 crumbled hard-boiled egg for the young. 



The quails that remain to be dealt with all 

 agree in having distinct tail-feathers, though the 

 tail is still short and inconspicuous in all except 

 one species. 



This one is the mountain-quail {Ophrysia super- 

 ciliosa), in which the tail is three inches long ; of 

 the rest, the two typical bush-quails {Perdicula) 

 are recognisable bj'- their short, stout, almost bull- 

 finch-like bills and their tail of twelve feathers, and 

 the slight -billed bush-quails (Microperdix) by hav- 

 ing a bill much like an ordinary quail's and ten 

 feathers in the tail, which is more than half as 

 long as the wing. 



All the above birds are rather miniature partrid- 

 ges than quails, both in form and habits, the stout- 

 billed bush-quails especially, in which the males 

 have a little knob on each shank, representing a 

 spur. 



