THE BLACK-BREASTED OR RAIN QUAIL. 1 59 



Irides clear to dark brown ; legs and feet pale fleshy, in 

 some greyish, in some with a yellowish tinge ; bill, in the male, 

 bluish black to dusky, paler at the base below, in the female 

 brownish horny above, bluish horny below. 



The PLATE is, I think, extremely good, though the bill of the 

 female should be lighter coloured. 



This species, as the dimensions already recorded will clearly 

 show, is altogether smaller than the Grey Quail, and the male 

 of the former, with the huge black patch on the breast (which, 

 however, varies with age, younger birds not having it nearly so 

 large as had the fine old bird figured)*, can never be confounded 

 with that of the Common Quail. But the females are more 

 alike, and it is well to bear in mind that, whereas in the Common 

 Quail the second and succeeding quill feathers are conspicu- 

 ously barred on their outer webs with light rufous, these feathers 

 are in the Rain Quail unbarred. 



Besides these two species of Cotumix which we meet with in 

 India, Africa (C. delegorguei), Australia (C. pectoralis), and New 

 Zealand (C. novcezelandice) have each a species peculiar to them- 

 selves. 



* Tickell says, in a passage which I quote below (and which, it must be under- 

 stood, applies to Eastern Chota Nagpore and not to Upper India), that the males 

 want the black on the bieast in the cold weather. Can this be correct ? It is not 

 invariably so, certainly, as I have specimens killed in December and February 

 showing the black distinctly. But I have an impression that I used to notice that 

 in the winter the black on the breasts of the males was less in extent and duller in 

 tint. 



" In the cold weather it wants the black colour of the breast, and is then so like 

 the ordinary Quail that both species are shot and popped into the game bag without 

 distinction. Then comes the burning month of March, when the Common Quails 

 have departed, save here and there a weakly lingerer. During that month and 

 April and part of May, not a Quail is to be seen or heard ; but soon after the 

 'chota bursat' (the little rains) have poured their delicious freshness on the parched 

 soil and the tender green of the jungle grass smiles out from the burnt ground, the 

 pretty tinkling notes of the Rain Quail are heard all around — 'whit-whit,' 'whit- 

 whit,' 'whit-whit,' and throughout the monsoon these birds are found scattered 

 about the paddy and wheat fields, and entering our gardens and compounds, where of 

 a morning they may be seen running along the paths." 



Mr. Vidal, writing on this subject, says : — "Next about Rain Quail ; Davidson says 

 — -* I think in the rains the cock has a blacker breast than in the cold weather, and is 

 also redder on the sides of the neck ; he however never loses the black. Some of the 

 young of course have very little.' 



"My experience, such as it is, agrees with Davidson's. The black, I have 

 always thought, seemed deeper in the rains and in larger blotches, though never alto- 

 gether wanting, in the cold weather." 



