The cock is a rust-coloured bird with a black collar round the back of his neck, and reddish wings.
The hen lacks the red on the wing.
The note is harsh and sepulchral, more like a grunt than a coo. The legs are not red as in the other common doves.
The Sand Grouse
This family seems to form a connecting link between the pigeons and the gallinaceous birds. They are characterised by having feathered legs. They are coloured so as to assimilate closely to their sandy surroundings. They are game birds. The reader is therefore referred to Marshall and Hume’s standard book, in which there are coloured plates of the various species. The order is treated of on pp. 53-63 of Vol. IV. of the Bird Volumes of The Fauna of British India series. (Illus. I. G. I., pp. 43, 47, 53, 57, 59, 65, 69, 77.)
[170]. Pavo cristatus: The Common Peafowl. (F. 1324), (J. 803), (+V, with a long train in the cock.)
Description of this familiar bird is unnecessary, but it and its loud call, like the miau of a cat, are known to all men.
The Quails
These, being game birds, do not come within the scope of the present work. The reader is referred to Hume and Marshall and the Bird Volumes of The Fauna of British India series for accounts of them. Since, however, one sometimes, in the course of a walk in the cold weather, puts up a common quail, I will briefly describe the bird. As you walk along you suddenly hear a rustling noise almost at your feet, and before you can say “Jack Robinson” a small brown bird has arisen with a flutter and dashed off a few inches over the tops of the heads of corn in the adjacent field. After a flight of twenty or thirty yards the bird drops into the corn—that is all you are likely to see of the quail unless you shoot it or net it.
[171]. Coturnix communis: The Common or Grey Quail. (F. 1355), (J. 829), (+II, but with a very short tail.)