IS6 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



The Blue-legged Button-Quail. 



Turnix pugnax, Faun. Brit. Tnd., Birds, Vol. 

 IV, p. 151. 



Native names : — Gulu, Gundlu, Salui-gun- 

 dru, Hindi ; Koladu (male), Pured (fe- 

 male), Telugu ; Aukddeh (male), Kurung- 

 kadeh (female), Tamil ; Durwa, Ratna- 

 giri ; Kdre-haki, Kanarese in Mysore ; 

 Timok, Lepcha ; Ngon, Burmese. 



This bird is often called the " Bustard-quail " 

 in books, but the name is distinctly misleading, as 

 this species is as unlike a bustard as are the rest. 



The general colouring of the male of this species 

 above is a complicated mixture of brown, black, 

 and white, more reddish in some specimens than in 

 others ; below it is buff, with a whitish throat and 

 black bars across the breast. In the female the 

 throat is black, and the middle of the breast black 

 also to a greater or less extent. Young birds have 

 black spots on the breast instead of bars. 



The bill and legs in this species are blue-grey, 

 and, with the barred breast, conspicuously dis- 

 tinguish it. 



The cock is six inches long, with a wing of about 

 three inches ; the hen about half an inch longer, 

 with a noticeably stronger bill. In captivity I 

 have seen her eat whole butterflies two inches 

 across the wings. 



This bird is found all over the Empire except in 

 the higher parts of the hills and in Sind and the Pun- 

 jab ; it avoids deserts and heavy forest ; out of India 

 it ranges east to China and Formosa. It usually 



