THE BLACK-BREASTED OR RAIN QUAIL. 1 53 



dawn in the morning until the sun is high ; and then again from 

 an hour or so before sunset until late in the evening ; during 

 cloudy and showery weather they go to rest earlier and awake 

 later, but then they call almost throughout the day. 



They are familiar birds, crowding into compounds, church- 

 yards, and all enclosures about stations where there is a little 

 long grass, and coming out morning and evening shyly to pick 

 about the paths and roads, ready at the slightest alarm to glide 

 noiselessly, but rapidly, into their grassy shelter. 



Their chief staple of food is, I think, grass seeds, but they 

 eat also all kinds of grain and lentils, and many insects, 

 especially termites. I remember shooting one that had eaten 

 several of the scarlet velvet mite {Trombidium tinctorum, or 

 some such name) that appears so commonly at the commence- 

 ment of the rains—a thing that rather startled me, as I have 

 noticed that birds generally avoid these gorgeous morsels. 



They are not at all forest birds, and are consequently entirely 

 wanting over large areas where the primeval forest still 

 survives unmolested, save for the tiny clearings of aboriginal 

 tribes. They cannot endure excessive moisture ; they love open, 

 moderately-dry, grassy lands, and in tracts like the low sea 

 board of the Southern Concan and the Malabar Coast, they 

 do not, I believe, breed, and only occur as somewhat rare winter 

 visitants. 



Mr. J. Davidson writes to me that — " the Rain Quail is very 

 common in the Deccan, and is a permanent resident, though it 

 wanders about a good deal in search of water, food and shelter. 

 Thus, while in November or December this Quail will be 

 found scattered about singly or in pairs everywhere, in the hot 

 weather hundreds will be found collected in a few nallas and 

 gardens, and the most careful beating will fail to flush a single 

 bird elsewhere for miles and miles. Moreover, it deserts its 

 most favourite haunts at once if food begins to run short. In 

 1876, when the rains failed in Sholapur, and the ground was as 

 bleak and uncultivated as in the hot weather, I never saw a 

 single bird. Nor did they return till about June 1877. 



" In Tumkur, Mysore, in the middle of November, they simply 

 swarmed. They were then in pairs, and commenced calling 

 hours before daylight, and in one camp positively kept me 

 awake from four in the morning. I was very busy, and had no 

 time to look for nests ; but I never started any young ones. They 

 afterwards collected in the scrub jungle, where some of the flocks 

 were very large, and they were still there in the middle of May. 

 During June and July, before leaving Mysore, I was working 

 in a jungle country, so can hardly say whether they migrated 

 or not, but I certainly never saw one in these months." 



Mr. Reid remarks : — " The Rain Quail is a scarce bird in the 

 Lucknow division until the rains set in, when, however, it be- 

 comes even more abundant than I have ever known the Grey 



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