136 THE COMMON OR GREY QUAIL. 



bers, far exceeding what are ever seen in the downwards migra- 

 tion,* because that occurs more or less in successive waves, while 

 the return journey across the Himalayas is made more en 

 masse. 



But just as on the downwards journey some always remain in 

 the north, so on the return journey a good many at times remain 

 behind, at any rate for one or two months, in the south. Thus in 

 the Deccan, long after the majority are luxuriating in our north- 

 ern wheat fields, a good many Grey Quail may still be seen, say, 

 in some years, to quite the end of April, or even to May. Here, 

 of course, I am referring to birds that do finally migrate ; a very 

 few, no doubt, remain even in parts of the Deccan to breed, but 

 certainly not, as Sykesf imagined, any large proportion of those 

 that occur there during the cold season. 



In connection with the fact that a small number are to be 

 found breeding in many parts of Upper India, and occasionally 

 one here and there in Central India and even the Deccan, the 

 question arises, — are these birds the representatives of a perma- 

 nently resident race ? Do these same couples always remain to 

 breed in India ? Or are they accidental " remainders" of the 

 migratory myriads ? — birds that, either feeling unequal to the 

 journey, or finding themselves in peculiarly delectable quarters, 

 stop behind for that one season and that season only ? 



In Southern Spain the local sportsmen profess to recognize 

 two distinct forms, the resident race criollas, lighter coloured and 

 somewhat smaller, and the migratory race castellanas, which are 

 larger and darker. In Eastern Turkestan there is a similar 

 idea, and some people say there also that they can distinguish 

 the birds that remain all the year round in the plains of 

 Yarkand and those that migrate to India. 



Is any thing of this kind observable in India ? I think not. 

 In the first place, as I shall show further on, all our birds in 

 India appear to belong to one and the same race. In the 

 second, so far as my experience and enquiries enable me to 

 judge, our birds breed sporadically, sometimes here, sometimes 

 there, whereas, if the same birds always remained to breed, 

 they would breed year after year in the same place, which 

 has not been the case in any one single instance that I have 

 been able to investigate. 



I, therefore, as at present advised, believe that in India general- 

 ly, including the lower outer ranges of the Himalayas, we have no 

 permanently resident race, only sporadic laggards, who, from 

 one cause or another, remain behind to breed as an exceptional 



* In many places in Northern India they pass through so rapidly that their arrival 

 is hardly noticed in September. 



+ He says (Trans. Zool. Soc. II., p. 12) " I never found them congregated in num- 

 bers as if preparatory to emigration, and feel fully satisfied that the bird does not at 

 any season quit any part of India I have been in— "?>., the Bombay Presidency, 

 chiefly the Deccan. Every modern observer in this same locality utterly denies the 

 correctness of this assertion. 



