THE COMMON EUROPEAN QUAIL. 
331 
Davison remarks : — ""^This species is always found in small parties of six 
or eight or more,, males and females^ keeping to the dense forest and never 
venturing into the open^ living on berries^ seeds^ tender shoots and leaves^ 
and insects of various kinds. It does not scratch about nearly so much as 
the Arboricolas, and is much quicker and more lively in its movements, 
much like a Quail, running hither and thither. They rise well before 
a dog ; but it is hard to flush them without. Their note is a soft, mellow, 
pleasant whistle, which is chiefly heard in the morning, but which they 
also utter when calling to each other after they have been separated. 
An allied Partridge is Melanoperdix nigra, found in the Malay peninsula. 
Subfamily COTUENICINiE. 
Genus COTURNIX, Bonn. 
686. COTURNIX COMMUNIS. 
THE COMMON EUROPEAN QUAIL. 
Tetrao coturnix, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 278. Coturnix communis, Bonn. Tall. 
Enc. Meth. p. 217; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 586; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 549; 
Bl. B. Bunn. p. 151 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 396 ; Dresser, Birds Eur. 
vii. p. 143, pi. ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 756 ; Hiime ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 447 
Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 298 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. Ill ; Scully, S. F. viii. p. 350 ; 
Hume 8f Marsh. Game Birds, ii. p. 133, pi. ; Hume, S. F. x. p. 236 (note). 
Desc7'iption. — Male. Feathers of the forehead, crown and nape black 
edged with rufous ; a narrow coronal streak and a broad supercilium pale 
buff; upper plumage a mixture of chestnut, buff and black, with long, 
pointed streaks of yellowish white ; a broad band down the chin and throat, 
expanding on the throat and running up laterally on either side the head 
to the ear-coverts, black ; sides of the chin and head white, the ear-coverts 
more or less rufous ; a band of white parallel to and adjoining the cross 
throat-band ; breast rufous blotched with chestnut and black, and with 
the shafts whitish ; lower plumage pale buff, the sides of the body dashed 
with chestnut and black, and with large white central streaks. 
The female is very similar, but wants the black on the throat. The 
breast also is paler and more marked with black. 
