I48 THE COMMON OR GREY QUAIL. 



In length they vary from ri to 1*26, and in breadth from 0*82 

 to 0*95 ; but the average of twenty eggs is 1*18 by o'Sg. 



ALTHOUGH I think that, while both sexes vary a good deal in 

 size, the very largest birds are all females, and the very smallest 

 males ; and though probably these latter also average smaller than 

 the females, still there is such a perfect gradation of size in 

 both sexes, that it is only at the extreme ends of the scale that 

 you could find a bird of one sex whose dimensions would not 

 agree with those of some bird of the other sex. It seems use- 

 less, therefore, to give the dimensions of the two sexes separately. 



Length, 7*1 to S'62 ; expanse, 13*0 to 147 ; wing, 4*0 to 4-55 ; 

 tail, r6 to 2*25 ; tarsus, 0*9 to 1*15 ; bill from gape, o*6 to 073 ; 

 weight, 3*2 ozs. to 4*62 ozs. 



The irides are brown of varying shades, sometimes light, 

 sometimes dark, sometimes hazel. 



The legs and feet are pale fleshy, sometimes with a more or 

 less strongly-marked brownish tinge, sometimes with a more or 

 less decided yellow one ; claws light to dusky horny, occasion- 

 ally with purplish, tint. 



The bill is very variable, dusky or nearly black, greyish 

 black at tip ; dull pale bluish ; brownish horny above, bluish 

 below ; horny brown, &c, are all colours that I have recorded 

 from fresh specimens. 



I have omitted to look into the question, but I am disposed 

 to suspect that these marked variations in the colours of the soft 

 parts will prove to be partly seasonal and partly due to nonage. 



The PLATE is a very fair representation of the ordinary Indian 

 type of Quail, but it is a pity that the throat of the male, the 

 portion of the plumage that varies most in this species, is so 

 turned away that the characteristic markings of the form that 

 occurs in India are not clearly shown. 



Taking Quails throughout the three vast continents over which 

 they occur, their plumage varies very greatly, and to some extent 

 probably locally. Dresser says : — 



" The variation in the colouration, and more especially in that 

 of the throat, of the male Quail is very great, and has been re- 

 marked and commented on by many authors. One would certainly 

 be inclined to separate it into two or three species, were it not 

 that in a series of specimens the variation exhibited is so great 

 as to make it impossible to draw the line anywhere. The 

 ordinary form has the throat buffy white or rusty buff, encircled 

 below by two semicircular bands of a rusty brown or dark brown 

 colour, which join similarly-coloured lines down each side ot 

 the head ; but one sees almost as frequently specimens with the 

 throat partially or almost entirely covered with a blackish brown 

 or rusty brown patch ; and another extreme form has the 



