itt itiiii frit iiif waul 



Coturnix communis, Bonnaterre. 



VemaCUlar Nam©S.— [Bhater, Burrabhater, Gagus bhater, Upper India; Buttairo, 

 Butteyra, Sind ; Buttree, Lower Bengal; Soipol, Manipur ; Botah Surrai, 

 Assam; Lowa, Ratnagiri ; Bur-ganja, Bur-ganji, Gur-ganj, Poona, Saiara, 

 &>c. ; Burli, Belgaum ; Gogari-yellichi (Telegu) ; Peria-ka-deh (Tamil) ; 

 Sipale haki (Canarese), Mysore; Budina (Turki) ; Watwalak, Kashgar 

 (common people.) ] 



HE Common Quail is found nearly all over the Indian 

 Empire, except in Tenasserim, the very easternmost 

 portions of Assam*, and Ceylon jf but it grows very 

 rare towards the southern extremity of the Peninsula^ 

 and in the countries south-east§ of the mouths of 

 the Ganges, Chittagong,|| ArakanH and Pegu,** can 

 only, I think, be considered as a rare straggler. 

 Out of India it occurs in Beluchistan, Afghanistan, Persia, 

 Arabia, in fact nearly the whole of Asia (excluding the more 



* I have it from Sylhet, North-Eastern Cachar, and Shillong, and it has been 

 procured at Chera Punji. Mr. S. Inglis says :— " This Quail is rather rare in Cachar. 

 I have only seen it three or four times when out Snipe-shooting in October." 

 Colonel Graham writes : — "The Common Quail I have seen in Goalpara, Kamrup, 

 Darrang, and Lakhimpur ; in all of these districts they are very rare ; they are 

 generally in pairs, and in a day you would not see over three brace at the outside. 

 Towards Sadiya they do not occur." 



+ Mr. A. Whyte says : — " There is no authentic record up to date of the occurrence, 

 in a wild state, of either C. communis or coromandelica in Ceylon ; both have, 

 however, been repeatedly liberated in the Cinnamon Gardens of Colombo, along 

 with other Indian species. Whether any of these introduced birds still survive I 

 cannot say, but certainly they have not multiplied, and you may safely assume that 

 neither species is indigenous to the island." 



X Writing from Mynall, Southern Travancore, Mr. Frank Bourdillon says : — 

 " Quails about here are very scarce ; one occasionally comes across a few in the low 

 country, but in this part of the hills they are very rare, and I have never shot any. 

 Their rarity here is, I suppose, due to the prevalence of heavy forest and the compara- 

 tively small amount of grass land and cultivation, for I am told that some 50 miles 

 north on this same range (The Assambu Hills), where the country is more open, very 

 pretty Quail-shooting may be had." 



§ Even immediately west of these it is rare. Mr. Rainey says that to the Jessore 

 district it is a rather rare cold weather visitant. 



|| Mr. Fasson writes : — "The large Grey Quail does occur in Chittagong, but is 

 rare." 



1T Blyth says it occurs in Arakan. I have not been able to verify this. He also 

 says that it has occurred in Martaban, but I have had so many persons now collecting 

 in Tenasserim for so many years, that I cannot accept this habitat. 



** Where Blanford got it. Ramsay also got it in Karennee. 



