232 QUAIL. 
and when alarmed or enraged, their cry, he says, resembles 
the word ‘guillah.’ 
For a nest the female scrapes out a small hollow in the 
ground, into which she collects a few bits of dry grass, straw, 
clover, and such like. She alone sits, and very closely, on 
the eggs, but the male assists her in the care of the young. 
The eggs are yellowish white, orange-coloured white, or 
greenish, blotted or speckled with brown. They vary much 
in number, from six to fourteen, or even, it is said, twenty, 
though generally ten. Incubation lasts about three weeks. 
The young follow the dam as soon as they are hatched. 
Male; length, eight inches; bill, greyish brown above, greenish 
blue beneath, the tip yellowish: iris, hazel; over it, and 
extending down the side of the neck, is a band of yellowish 
white, formed by marks on the centres of the feathers. The 
crown, with a narrow band of yellowish white, formed by 
marks on the centre of each feather, and neck on the back, 
black, the feathers edged with brown; nape, a mixture of 
brownish black, light red, and yellowish grey; chin and 
throat, pale chesnut brown; on the latter are two crescents 
of brownish black, with a black patch at the base, its sides 
light yellowish brown or reddish, spotted with black and 
yellowish white; breast, above, light yellowish brown or 
reddish, with straw-coloured shaft lines; on the middle 
and lower part pale yellowish white; and on the sides light 
brownish red, each feather with a central band of white, 
edged with brownish black; the back is variegated with 
brownish black, light red, and yellowish grey, with four 
longitudinal bands of yellowish white pointed streaks. 
The wings, of twenty feathers, have the first three of 
nearly equal length, but the first a little longer than the 
third, the second the longest; they expand to one foot two 
inches in width; greater and lesser wing coverts, pale rufous 
brown, streaked with brown and yellowish grey; primaries, 
dusky brown, banded on the outer webs with pale red, the 
first one with its outer edge white. The tail, of fourteen 
feathers, dark brown, barred with whitish; upper tail coverts, 
rufous brown; under tail coverts, pale yellowish white. Legs, 
toes, and claws, greyish yellow. 
The female is paler in general colour; the neck is without 
the crescents and the black patch: a dusky streak passes down 
from behind the eyes; chin and throat, pale yellowish white; 
the breast is marked with smell dark spots on each side of 
