220 
POPULAR HISTORY OP BIRDS. 
uSy it much resembles our partridge in its form and air^ and 
in most of its habits and manners. The male birds have 
spurs^ and are rather more pugnacious than our gentle bird^ 
possessing a few of those martial tastes which have rendered 
quails so famed in China. The ^'Partridge' of the East In- 
dies sometimes perches on trees during the daj^ and most 
commonly rests on them at night : it is found in gardens 
and cultivated lands^ but never^ according to the observa- 
tions of Colonel Sykes^ inhabits forests. 
There is a very curiously-marked species of Indian par- 
tridge^ which has the feathers at the base of the bill of a 
red colour^ as if suffused with blood, which seems too as 
if it had dropped on the breast and stained it. Oar figure 
(Plate XVII. fig. 1, Perdix cruenta) shows this rare species, 
which was brought by General Hardwicke from Northern 
India, and is preserved, with the rest of his noble collection, 
in the British Museum. 
The migratory habits of the quails are well known to 
every one; and the immense flocks, in which they some- 
times appear, have been read of by every child acquainted 
with the Bible. There seems no reason to doubt that the 
species which miraculously supplied the children of Israel was 
our common quail, which is still at times far from uncom- 
