JUNGLE BUSH QUAIL

JUNGLE BUSH QUAIL : Perdicula asiatica R Quail-: 17 cm. Fulvous brown above streaked and mottled with buff. Below white barred with black. Female pinkish rufous below. Both sexes with chestnut supercilium and bright chestnut throat patch. Grass and scrub jungle and poen deciduous secondary forest. Practically entire Subcontinent, plains and hills up to c. 1250 m. Sri Lanka.

Local Names: lowwa-hindi; vanalavari-gujrat; juhar-manbhum; auriconnai-santhali; girza pitta-telugu; kari lowya-kannada; varikada-malayalam.

Size: rain Quail: Field Characters: male: Fulvouis-brown above, streaked and mottled with black and buff; white below, closely barred with black. Female: Lower parts pale pinkish rufous. Both sexes have a prominent buff and chestnut superciliary stripe from forehead backward and down sides of the neck, and a bright chestnut throat-patch Covey’s in scrub country. Distribution: Locally throughout the Indian Union excepting NE. states; plains and hills up to 1000m, also Sri Lanka. Absent in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar. Four races concern us. Habits: Affects fairly open decidous forest and dry stony grass and scrub jungle. Lives in coveys of 5 to 20 which brings the scattered members together and ‘explode’ or rise suddenly with the wings when almost trodden on, dispersing in all directions but soon reuniting. Call: A whistling whi whi whi whi which brings the scattered members together. Breeding males are pungnacious and challenge rivals by harsh grating calls similar to the ‘arguing’ of Black Drongos at the onset of their breeding. Food: Grass Grass seeds, grain and tender shoots; also termites. Nesting Season—not well defined; ranges between August and April. Nest—a scrape at base of a grass tussock in scrub jungle, lined with grass. Eggs—4 to 8, creamy, white.
The hen alone incubates. It is not certain if the cock is monogamous