THE INDIAN BUSTARD-QUAIL. I/I 



met with anywhere in low bush jungle and on the skirts of 

 forests, and, in inhabited districts, greatly affects gardens, grass 

 preserves and similar enclosures. It strays into stubbles and 

 low crops in the mornings and evenings, even remaining in these 

 at times throughout the day, but more generally retreating 

 during the hotter noontide hours to the cover of some thorny 

 bush or patch of grass upon their margins. 



Where the country is very arid, as in most parts of Rajputana 

 and many places in the North-Western Provinces, this species is 

 scarcely seen except during the rainy season ; and again, it is 

 almost unknown in densely-cultivated and populated tracts where 

 there is no jungle and no long grass. I have invariably seen it 

 singly or in pairs, and only rarely in the latter ; never in parties 

 or bevies of five or six, as Jerdon says. 



Small millets, grass seeds, ants, white and black, and other 

 small grains and insects constitute its food. It feeds almost 

 exclusively in the early mornings and near sunset. At these 

 times it may be seen running about along the paths of gardens 

 or other enclosures, amongst isolated tufts of grass, on the 

 margins of clumps of stunted jujube, and in the edges of low 

 crops, and even in short stubbles, if these occur in the neighbour- 

 hood of suitable cover. 



It is a very silent bird. Except during the breeding season, 

 I have never once heard it call ; at that time the females emit 

 a dull note, scarcely likely to attract attention unless you are 

 on the look-out for it. I have occasionally heard and noticed 

 it, but not often. Colonel Tickell however says that this species 

 " is as great a ventriloquist as the Corn Crake, bothering the saga- 

 cious* sportsman as to its whereabouts. Its note is a long- 

 continued ' purr' or ' roll,' as if a tiny drum were being beaten 

 somewhere about our feet ; and so deceptive is the sound that 

 it appears close by when, in fact, fifty or sixty yards off, and 

 vice versd. It is heard chiefly of an evening, just before sunset, 

 when the air is calm and cool, and the fields and jungle assume 

 that sweet, soft green, fading imperceptibly into the pale violet 

 background of distant woods and hills, so characteristic of that 

 gentle hour, nowhere more beautiful than in the spring-like 

 winter of Bengal." 



11 This was a rare Quail in the Deccan, and I found it generally in the scrub 

 jungles. 



11 In Tumkur, Mysore, it was very common among the cocoanut gardens, where- 

 ever these latter were out of order and contained high grass. 



" In the Panch Mahals, Guzerat, it was not uncommon among the small enclosed 

 fields." 



Mr. Vidal remarks : — 



" A few are found in Ratnagiri in winter crops of pigeon-pea and Dolichos, and at 

 other times of the year in thick groves and thickets about villages. Nowhere 

 plentiful in this district, usually flushed in pairs. I have sometimes found it in hill- 

 side scrub " 



* No sagacious sportsman would ever give the bird a second thought. — A. O H. 



