File:Indian sporting birds (1915) (14770511023).jpg

Identifier: indiansportingbi00finn (find matches)
Title: Indian sporting birds
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Finn, Frank, 1868-1932 Hume, Allan Octavian, 1829-1912 Marshall, Charles Henry Tilson, 1841-
Subjects: Birds -- India Game and game-birds -- India
Publisher: London : Francis Edwards
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
in the ways of this bird and thecommon quail appears to consist in the note of the male, whichis said to be deep and hollow, of several rapidly-uttered syllables. Rain-Quail. Coturnix coromandelica. Chota hater, Hindustani. Although the cock rain-quail is noticeably distmguished bythe black streaks—in old birds coalescing into a black patch—on his more warmly-tinted breast, and by the purity and dis-tinctness of the white and black of his throat, the species isvery commonly confounded with the common quail, and it mustbe admitted that the hens are almost exactly alike. In thisbird, however, there is none of the light chequering on thepinion-quills in either sex, and it is smaller altogether than thecommon quail, not exceeding two ounces in weight. When used to it one can always pick out even the hens,without looking at the quills, by their brighter colouring andsmaller size, which is conspicuous enough to distinguish thisbird even in flight. The same native names, however, usually
Text Appearing After Image:
EAIN-QUAIL 266 are given to both, though the Telugu speakers call this birdChinna yellichi, and the Tamils Kade, while Chanac is used inNepal. This species, although to a great extent locally migratory,is a purely Indian and Burmese bird ; but it does not extendto the confines of our Empire, being absent from Kashmir inone direction and Tenasserim in the other, while it is not foundin Ceylon, attempts to introduce it (and the common quail also)having apparently failed. Its name, rain-quail, has reference to its appearance in certaindistricts coinciding with the opening of the rains ; these are thedrier parts of Upper India and Burma, and it visits these toescape, apparently, from the damp in the more low-lying andrainy tracts, where, as in Lower Bengal, it is common enoughin the dry months. It is generally a bird of the plains, but onthe advent of the rains will penetrate up to 6,000 feet in theHimalayas and Nilgiris. In the Deccan it is resident, and alsoin parts of Southern India. I

Note About Images