COTURNIX COROMANDELICA.

Coromandel Quail.

Tetrao Coromandelicus, Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat. tom. i. par. i. p. 764.

La Petite Caille de Gingi, Sonn. Voy. aux Indes, tom. 11. p. 172.

Coromandel Quail, Lath. Gen. Syn. vol. iv. p. 789.—Ib. Gen. Hist. vol. vii. p. 310.

Perdix Coromandelica, Lath. Ind. Orn. vol. ii. p. 654.

Coturnix textilis, Temm. Hist. Nat. des Gall. tom. iii. pp. 512 & 742.—Ib. Pl. Col. 35.—Less. Traité d’Orn. p. 509,
Atlas, pl. 90. fig. 1— Sykes in Proc. of Comm. of Sci. and Corr. of Zool. Soc. part u. p. 153.

Coromandelica, Bonnat. et Vieill. Ency. Méth. Orn. part i. p. 221.—Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat.

Soc. Calcutta, p. 255.—Gray, List of Birds in Brit. Mus. Coll. part iii. p. 38.—Gray and Mitch. Gen.
of Birds, vol. iii. p. 507, Coturniz, sp. 3.—Frankl. in Proc. of Comm. of Sci. and Corr. of Zool. Soc.
part i. p. 123.

Caille de la Céte de Coromandel, Sonn. Edit. Buff. Hist. des Ois. tom. vil. p. 140.

Perdix olivacea, Buchanan, Frankl. in Proc. of Comm. of Sci. and Corr. of Zool. Soc. part i. p. 123.

Coturnia textilis? v. pluvialis, Gray, Zool. Misc. p. 85.

Coturnix Coromandelicus, Gray, Cat. of Spec. and Draw. of Mamm. and Birds presented to Brit. Mus. by B. H.
Hodgson, Esq., p. 128.

Rain Quail, of Indian Sportsmen.

 

Tuis is im every respect a true Quail, or typical Coturniw ; its native country is India, over every part of
which it is dispersed, with the exception of the Himalayas, which do not offer it a congenial habitat. It
does not appear to possess the great migratory powers of the common species, but to be stationary in all
parts of India ; it is about half the size of the European bird, and is rendered remarkably different from
that and all the other members of the genus by the singular markings of the face and the black colouring
of its chest. It is a handsome little bird, and its flesh is said to be equally palatable as that of its Euro-
pean prototype. Major Franklin states that it is called Bhuterr, and that it is the most common Quail
of India; and Colonel Sykes, who met with it in pairs during the monsoon, informs us that it is gregarious
during the remainder of the year, and very abundant in the Jowaree fields (Andropogon Sorghum).

Mr. Jerdon says, ‘‘ This pretty little species is very common in most of the well-cultivated districts of
India, frequenting the fields in bevies, and also patches of grass in various situations, and low jungle. It
breeds during the monsoon: many natives consider it the male of the common species.”

The male has the head brown, with a conspicuous streak of buff down the centre; above the eye a streak
of buffy white, commencing at the forehead and extending to the nape; a brown line from the lores through
the eye to the ear; a small streak of brown from the angle of the mouth; face and throat creamy white,
bounded below by a crescent of black, some distance within which is another crescent of the same hue,
united to a broad mark of black passing down the centre of the throat; feathers of the shoulders, upper
surface, scapularies, rump and tail-feathers brown, largely blotched with black, freckled and narrowly banded
with buff, the buff bands bordered with black ; all the feathers with a conspicuous streak of pale buff
down the centre; wings pale brown, freckled with pale buff; sides of the breast sandy buff, with a narrow
whitish line down the centre of the tip; breast black, streaked with buffy white ; flanks sandy buff, streaked
with black, bounded on each side with white ; abdomen and under tail-coverts buffy white, the former con-
spicuously streaked with black ; irides reddish brown ; bill, legs and feet olive-brown.

The colouring of the female is very similar to that of the male, but the black and buff markings of the
upper surface are larger and less elegant in appearance ; there is only an indication of the markings so
conspicuous on the throat, and the under surface is sandy buff, deepest on the breast, where it is also
streaked with whitish and spotted with black ; the flanks also are not so regularly marked as in the male,
the feathers being mottled rather than streaked with buff, black and whitish.

The Plate represents two males and a female of the natural size.

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