140 THE COMMON OR GREY QUAIL. 



or possibly a black or two (I mean Partridges, shooting the 

 other kind est expresse'ment defendu), and almost certainly a 

 hare or two make their appearance, the former skimming along 

 about the level of the mackan, lovely cross shots (some of 

 course, but not many with well trained beaters, out of range), 

 the latter tippety tap, without the faintest conception of look- 

 ing up, halting probably to listen with ears erect just outside 

 the field, perhaps not five yards from the machan. 



And now the flank beaters have got down to the edge of the 

 field where your station is, and now the Quail begin to rise and 

 whirr past, and nine out of ten birds will pass within shot if 

 the thing has been properly managed. You are now in the 

 warm corner, and the birds will rise much quicker than you 

 can load and fire, unless you have a rule that at each shot every 

 man halts and keeps perfectly still until you whistle. Even 

 then, as the semicircle contracts, the Quail whirr up in threes and 

 fours, and many will get past without running the gauntlet of 

 your fire. 



If, as often happens, there are a few scattered bushes here and 

 there dotted over the fallow field, 5, 10, 15 yards away from 

 the edge of the field, and you whistle a halt, get down and 

 yourself walk through them, quietly, putting your foot into each, 

 you will probably find that, despite the terrific fusilade you have 

 been keeping up, almost every tiny patch contains one or more 

 Quails. 



I have thus occasionally killed over a dozen brace, besides 

 other game, from one platform ; but even if you get only five or 

 six brace all told, there is " a rapture of repose" about the arrange- 

 ment, which I confess has always had mauy charms for me. 



Colonel Tickell furnishes some excellent notes about this 

 species. He says : — 



" The Quail makes its appearance in India about the middle 

 or third week in October,* when, in Bengal, the rice is still in 

 the ear. It adheres to the paddy fields after the crops are cut, 

 gleaning in the stubble for the grains left by the reapers, and 

 when these are exhausted, repairs to the fields of pulse, vetch, 

 &c. (urhur, chunna, moong, oorud, &c.), which are about that 

 time ripe, and feeds on the peas that fall from the pods. When 

 these are out, it still finds shelter in the weeds that grow at the 

 feet of the urhur stalks, or hides in the tussocks of grass border- 

 ing the fields, or, in countries covered with much brushwood, 

 it retires for concealment into the ber and ground sal thickets 

 in the immediate vicinity of cultivation. The stay of this bird 

 in Central India is but short, and by the end of January few 

 are to be seen there. 



" In such localities as have been above noticed, Quails at times 

 abound to such a degree that shooting them is mere slaughter. 



* Earlier of course in Northern India.— A. O. II. 



