5750 Birds. 



fields ; but having passed some years in the South of India all I can 

 say is that my own experience has proved the reverse of this to be the 

 case. Being unable to indulge much in snipe-shooting I used to 

 follow the quails, a very common bird indeed in that part of the 

 country, consequently had good opportunities of learning something 

 of its habits. I will not, however, undertake to say that quails are not 

 occasionally to be found in the cultivated fields, but their habitat is 

 the stunted jungle. What their usual food may be, not having dis- 

 sected any, I am of course not prepared to say, but think I should not 

 be far wrong in conjecturing that it is grass and other seeds, berries, 

 ants' eggs, Crustacea, and such like, all found in abundance in these 

 localities. So common are these birds in the situations described that 

 I have seen some twenty or thirty driven out of bushes only a few yards 

 in circumference, reminding one of a flock of sparrows. Although they 

 greatly resemble the common European quail individually they vary 

 much in plumage, and in size they are much inferior, I should say fully 

 a third. Their flesh is dry and insipid, but could it be kept even for 

 a day or two it might prove more savoury. The quails found in the 

 northern districts are not only much larger, but their plumage is darker 

 and far more beautiful. 



Madras or Painted Snipe (Rhynchcea capensis, Tern.). Is common 

 in the South of India in some districts; I fell in with a great number 

 in the paddy-fields, only a few marches from Madras, on the Trichino- 

 poly road. I found them less wild than the common snipe, so that 

 when missed there was no great difficulty in getting a second shot. 

 The plumage is not only darker but far more beautiful and glossy than 

 that of the latter, but their flesh is considered much inferior. Cuvier, 

 in describing and comparing it, says, "lis joignent des couleurs plus 

 vives et se font surtout remarquer par des taches ceillees sur leurs 

 pennes des ailes, et de la queue." Another author describes it as having 

 a pale reddish bill ; upper parts mixed with tawny and blackish ; a 

 brown stripe down the middle of the crown and behind each eye ; two 

 black-brown bands on the back ; throat and fore part of the neck 

 tawny, spotted with black; rest of the under parts white, except a 

 band of black across the breast ; quills and tail variegated with black, 



tawny and gray. 



Henry W. Hadfield. 



Tunbridge, July, 1857. 



(To be continued). 



