THE LITTLE BUTTON QUAIL. I95 



Dr. Jerdon tells us that this species " occurs through the 

 whole* of India (not, however, affecting hilly or forest districts) 

 in grass, corn-fields, and wherever there is thick herbage. It is 

 flushed with great difficulty, often getting up at your very feet, 

 flies but a few yards, and drops down again into the grass, not 

 to be re-flushed but after a most laborious search, and some- 

 times allowing itself to be caught by the hand or by a dog. 

 Its name of Dubki, signifying ' squatter/ is given from this 

 habit. It has a low plaintive moan of a single note." 



Col. Tickell says : — 



"A favorite haunt in jungly country are those sandy tracts of 

 ground where trees do not thrive, but are replaced by scattered 

 b£r and similar bushes and patches of wire grass. In these 

 the bird lies so close and snug that it may almost be trodden 

 on before it takes wing, and then will sometimes fly for a few 

 yards only. When once settled, it appears determined not to 

 rise again ; and the cowherd boys in India are so well aware of 

 this propensity that, as soon as one is marked down, they rush 

 in, follow it up quickly through the grass, and knock it on the 

 head with a stick." 



Mr. Reid writes to me: — 



" The Indian and Little Button Quails, though not by any means 

 common, are everywhere distributed throughout the Lucknow 

 division. Except in the early morning, when they may be found 

 feeding in open glades, they are difficult to flush, and when once 

 flushed, fired at and missed, will seldom rise again, and may 

 then, if discovered, be easily taken by the hand or killed with a 

 stick. This is more especially the case with the Little Button, 

 one of which I myself captured alive after an unsuccessful shot. 



"These birds are, I think, fonder of shade than most of 

 the Quail tribe, being generally found in lonely groves over- 

 grown with grass, or in gardens or groves surrounded and 

 intersected by rows of thatching and other long grasses." 



Mr. G. Vidal reports that " the Little Button Quail (which the 

 natives there call by the same name as the Indian Bustard Quail) 

 is found throughout the Ratnagiri district, but is nowhere com- 

 mon or abundant. Sometimes it is flushed in crops when beat- 

 ing for Grey and Rain Quail, but more often on the skirts of 

 thick temple groves, into the cover of which it sneaks on the 

 first alarm. It is usually solitary, occasionally in pairs, but never 

 in coveys." 



Captain Butler, who is familiar with its call, informs me that 

 " the note of this species is remarkable, being a mixture of a 

 ' purr' and a ' coo/ and when uttering it the bird raises its feathers 

 and turns and twists about much in the same way as an old 

 cock pigeon. I have often watched them in the act of cooing 

 within a few yards of me. If an old bird gets separated from 



* This must be taken cum grano. There is no evidence of such a wide and uni- 

 versal distribution. 



