QUAIL SHOOTING 
the quail is not included, the only game birds protected being pheasants, 
partridges, francolin* and sandgrouse. 
Mr. H. Storey, Secretary of the Ceylon Game Protection Society, 
identifies three species of quail in the island. Writing in 1907,f he enumer- 
ates the black -breasted bustard quail, coming first as the one most com- 
monly met with, though plentiful in only a few parts of Ceylon, frequenting 
open grassy or weed-grown country from an elevation of about 2,000 feet 
to sea level; difficult to flush without a dog, but flying with a “ whirr ” 
at great speed for about fifty yards, to settle with extraordinary sudden- 
ness. He adds that abandoned dry grain clearings are favourite resorts. 
Next there is the Chinese quail {Coturnix chinensis), the eastern repre- 
sentative of our common quail {Coturnix communis) and not unlike it in 
appearance; an autumn migrant to be found chiefly in the low country 
of the west in damp spots and grassy hollows in the jungle. Finally there 
is the jungle bush-quail {Perdicula asiaticd)^ a larger bird, about an inch- 
and-a-half longer, and stouter in proportion, to be met with only in the 
low country of the Eastern Province. 
It is curious that Sir Emerson Tennent, in his “ Natural History of 
Ceylon,” so full of information on other subjects, makes no mention of 
partridge or quail further than to say (p. 265) that “ partridges and quails 
are to be had at all times,” a statement which in regard to the latter bird 
is not quite exact. 
It will be seen from the foregoing statistics that the common European 
quail {Coturnix communis) has a most extensive geographical distribution 
over three continents. In addition to this, experiments have been made 
to introduce it into parts of the United States, where large consignments 
have been set at liberty. In the State of Vermont, for example, in the 
neighbourhood of Rutland, no fewer than 6,000 quails were liberated in 
the course of two years, J and many others elsewhere. Seeing that Coturnix 
communis is a migratory species, the wisdom of such experiments may 
be questioned, and they have been adversely criticized even by American 
writers. Messrs Sandys and Van Dyke, for example, in their “ Upland 
Game Birds,” write as follows : — “ Although the common quail of Europe, 
Asia and Africa is not indigenous in North America, a determined but 
*The Francolin (Francolitius pictus) is to be met with on some of the lower hills of the central provinces, west and 
south of Newara Elia. Blanford, Fauna of British India (Birds), vol. iv, p. 137, and Baker, With Rifle and Hound in 
Ceylon (1854), p. 387. 
t Hunting and Shooting in Ceylon (1907), p. 66. 
XSee The Zoologist, 1878, p. 390, and Dr C. H. Merrlam’s Report on Quail, Bulletin U.S. Dept. Agriculture (1905). 
221 
