THE BLACK-BREASTED BUSTARD QUAIL.
The BLACK-BREASTED BUSTARD QUAIL (Turnix pugnax), a well-known species of the above group, has the foot furnished with only three toes. The feathers on the mantle are of a dark brown tipped with crescent-shaped black and rust-red spots; the region of the eye, bridles, and cheeks are white, spotted with black; the wings are greyish brown, spotted with black and white; the quills are edged with white on the outer web; the throat is deep black, and the lower breast and belly bright rust-red; the rest of the plumage resembles that of the male. The eye is white, the beak light grey, and the foot dark yellow. This species is six inches long; the wing measures three inches, and the tail one inch. The female is considerably larger than her mate.
This interesting bird, which has long been a domestic favourite with the Hindoos and Malays, is very common in Java, where, as everywhere else, it frequents grassy patches in the forests and jungles, low bushy jungle, or fields of dhal and other thick crops near patches of brushwood; but it is rarely found in barren country, or in cultivated ground where there is no shelter. It feeds on various kinds of grain, small insects, and grasshoppers. The call of the female is a peculiar, loud, purring sound.
"The hen birds," says Jerdon, "are most pugnacious, especially about the breeding season; and this propensity is made use of in the south of India to effect their capture. To this end a small cage with a decoy-bird is used, having a concealed spring compartment made to fall by the snapping of a thread placed between the bars of the cage. This is set on the ground in some thick cover, carefully protected. The decoy-bird begins her loud purring call, which can be heard a long way off, and any females within earshot rapidly run to the spot and commence fighting with the caged bird, striking at the bars. This soon breaks the thread, the spring-cover falls, at the same time ringing a small bell, by which the owner, who remains concealed near at hand, is warned of a capture, and at once runs up, secures his prey, and sets his cage again in another locality. In this way I have known twelve to twenty birds captured in one day in a patch of jungle in the Carnatic, where only I have seen this practice carried on. The birds that are caught in this way are all females, and in most cases are birds laying eggs at the time, for I have frequently known instances of some eight or ten of those captured so far advanced in egg-bearing as to lay their eggs in the bag in which they were carried before the bird-catcher had reached my house."
The eggs, which are usually laid in a hollow in the ground, behind a bush, or sheltered by a stone, are from five to eight in number, of a dull stone-grey or green tint, thickly spotted and freckled with dusky yellowish brown; they are blunt in shape and very large in proportion to the bird. The affection of the male of this species for its offspring would appear to be by no means inferior to that of the mother; for we learn from Swinhoe that upon one occasion, having succeeded in capturing two young Bustard Quails that were almost fully fledged and placed them in a cage, he observed the female parent, as he supposed, clucking like a hen, as it ran and crept about the prisoners in a vain endeavour to lure them out of their strange abode. In order to secure a specimen the bird was shot, and on examination proved to be a male. The Javanese rear this species on rice and small grasshoppers, and train both sexes to fight for their entertainment.
THE AFRICAN BUSH QUAIL.
The AFRICAN BUSH QUAIL (Turnix Africanus, or T. Gibraltariensis), one of the largest members of the group, is about six inches long; the sexes resemble each other in the coloration of their plumage, but the female is of much greater size, and fully one-third heavier than her mate. The dark brown head of the male is enlivened by three yellow streaks, and the back marked with irregular black and brown zigzag lines; the feathers of the wing-covers are yellow, with a black spot on the outer and a reddish yellow spot on the inner web; the throat is white, and the region of the crop reddish brown, each feather being edged with a lighter tint; the sides are reddish brown, with a few dark spots, and shade gradually into the pure white that covers the belly; the outer webs of the quills have light edges; the eye is yellow, the beak yellowish, and the foot lead-grey.
This species is found in many parts of Sicily and Spain, and stragglers are sometimes seen in the plains of Languedoc; it is met with also in the north of Africa, especially among the thickets and dwarf palms of Mount Atlas. Tristram informs us that a nest found in Algeria was most carefully concealed in thick bushes, and contained several eggs, slightly spotted, and of a purplish blue shade.
THE COLLARED PLAIN-WANDERER.
The COLLARED PLAIN-WANDERER (Pedionomus torquatus) has the foot furnished with four toes. The beak, which almost equals the head in length, is straight and compressed at its tip; the wings are short and shell-shaped, with the first, second, and third quills of equal size; the tail is short, the tarsus long, and the hinder toe placed high. In this species the top of the head is reddish brown, spotted with black; the brow and sides of the neck are light fawn-colour, dotted with black; the broad white band on the throat also shows black spots; the mantle-feathers are reddish brown, striped with black, and edged with reddish yellow; the middle breast is red, the rest of the under side fawn-colour, each of the feathers being marked like those on the back, whilst those at the sides exhibit broad irregular black spots; the tail-feathers are striped with blackish brown. The eye is straw-colour, the beak yellow, with black tip, and the foot greenish yellow. The male is four inches and a half long, and his wing three inches and a quarter, whilst his mate, who also surpasses him in the beauty of her markings, is not less than seven inches long; her wing measures three inches and a half, and the tail of both sexes one inch and a quarter.