THE BLUE-BREASTED OR PAINTED QUAIL. 1 63 



eschews the smaller islands, arid or elevated tracts above, say 

 5,000 feet, and is only common in low-lying, moist, or swampy 

 grass-covered lands. 



I HAVE already noticed that to the whole of the Sub- 

 Himalayan tracts and lower ranges west of the Ganges the 

 Painted Quail is, as a rule, a rainy-season visitant; but I should add 

 that a few birds, perhaps mere stragglers, remain throughout 

 the year in the Duns and Terais that skirt the bases of these 

 portions of the Himalayas, and that throughout the valley of 

 Assam they seem to be permanent residents, a certain proportion 

 perhaps migrating to the adjacent hills during the rainy season. 

 In Cachar they are to some extent, and on the southern faces of 

 the Garo and Khasia Hills, they appear to be chiefly, if not entirely, 

 monsoon visitants, while in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, Dacca, 

 &c, they are rare, except during the winter and spring. 



I have always, except in the autumn, met with this species 

 singly or in pairs. You may at times find a considerable 

 number in the same patch of grass ; but they are always as 

 independent of each other as are similar aggregations of the 

 Common Quail, and I totally disbelieve Latham's story of 

 their going about in Sumatra in "flocks of a hundred birds," 

 or in any sort of flocks or coveys except just after the breeding 

 season, when the two old birds, with their four to six young 

 ones, do keep in a covey. 



Open, swampy grassy lands or meadows, are their favourite 

 haunts, and I doubt whether they are ever found far from such. 

 They will, doubtless, wander into low bush jungle, the edges of 

 low standing crops, and, as Jerdon says, into patches of grass 

 along the sides of roads ; but this is almost exclusively when 

 feeding in the early mornings and evenings, or when their meadow 

 homes have been suddenly flooded. 



They come freely into the open when feeding, and in the early 

 mornings may be seen gliding along by the sides of roads and 

 paths, picking about and scratching here and there ; taking little 

 notice of passengers, and either running on before them if not 

 pressed, or just hiding up in the nearest tuft of grass, to emerge 

 again as soon as the traveller has got ten or fifteen yards beyond 

 their hiding-place. 



Their call is a very low, soft, double-whistled note, compara- 

 tively rarely heard except when a pair has been separated ; then, 

 indeed, almost the moment the male has lit he begins calling 

 to his mate. They feed quite silently, and if they have seen and 

 are expecting you, rise quite silently also; but both sexes, if 

 suddenly alarmed, and females when startled from their nests, 

 rise with a low, shrill, rapidly-repeated chirp, " tchi, tcki, tiki." 

 Their flight is very fast, straight and low, rarely more than a foot 

 above the tops of the grass, and is continued for from fifty to 

 seventy yards, affording an excellent shot. Indeed they fly so 



