112 THE JUNGLE BUSH-QUAIL. 



hills) ; Mount Abu ; Valley of Tapti, W. Khandesh ; Lucknow ; 

 Umballa ; the Dun ; Lower Himalayan ranges, below Kumaun-, 

 Mussooree, Simla, and of Kashmir. 



Much remains to be done before we can exactly define the 

 distribution of this species, but the above remarks will, I hope, 

 help to convey some general idea of its range in India. 



Outside our limits it is not found. 



Moderately thick forests and jungles, hills, ravines, and 

 broken ground, not too deficient in cover, and rich cultivation, if 

 not in too damp and undrained situations, from near the sea 

 level to an elevation of four to five thousand feet, are the 

 ordinary resorts of the Jungle Bush Quail. Very considerable 

 differences in rainfall affect them but little, provided the ground 

 is hilly, raviny or well drained, and cover sufficient, and they 

 are abundant, as on the Western Ghats, where the rainfall is 

 over ioo inches, and on scrub-clad hills in Rajputana, where it 

 certainly falls short of 20 inches. 



Little bustling ground birds, always keeping, according to my 

 experience, in packs or families ; never coming out into the 

 open ; always feeding in grass, jungle or stubble long enough 

 to hide their tiny selves ; there is but little to be said of their 

 habits. They are very tame, and trouble themselves but little 

 about men ; and if you stand perfectly still for a few minutes, 

 will bustle about within a few yards of you, all feeding, chirping 

 and scratching in the dust as if their lives depended upon their 

 getting through a certain amount of all this within the shortest 

 possible time. Even when thus at their ease, a pocket handker- 

 chief would often cover an entire covey of a dozen ; they have 

 often reminded me strongly when thus moving about, the whole 

 body animated, as it were by one impulse, of a flock of Guinea- 

 Fowl. Make the least sound, and the whole party cluster 

 together into the space a dinner plate would cover ; and, unless 

 pressed, glide away en masse out of sight. You make a rush, 

 and, suddenly from the grass on which your foot is descending, 

 a lively fountain of small birds spurts out, with a vast amount 

 of whirring, and sharp quivering whistling. In every direc- 

 tion fly the birds, every one of which probably drops, as if shot, 

 within 20 or at most 30 yards. Immediately some one or two 

 begin calling vigorously ; within five minutes, if you have not 

 fired and keep still, your dog will put the whole reunited covey 

 up again, perhaps nearly a hundred yards away, perhaps closer 

 to you than any one of them alighted. 



Their chief food appears to be grass seeds and grains of 

 millets. Ragi stubble is a sure find for them ; but they eat any 

 small seeds and grains, and sometimes you find quantities of 

 insects, ants and tiny coleoptera in their crops. I am disposed, 

 however, to think that they only eat these latter when grain and 



