Himalayan Quail

The red bill and legs of this small dark quail and white spots before and after the eye make it distinctive. The male is dark grey with bleak streaks and a white forehead and supercilium. The female is brownish with dark streaks and greyish brow. Like the male it has a white spot in front of the eye and a larger one behind the eye. It is believed to fly only when flushed at close quarters and was found in coveys of five or six. The habitat was steep hillsides covered by long grass. The genus name is derived from Ophrys which refers the brow. This quail has long tail coverts and the 10 feathered tail is longer, nearly as long as the wing, than in most quails. The feathers of the forehead and bristly and stiff. The species was described in 1846 by J. E. Gray from living specimens in the collection of the Earl of Derby at Knowsley Hall, and he gave the locality as "India" with a query. These are the two syntype specimens of Rollulus superciliosa J.E.Gray (Knowsley Menagerie, 1, 1846, p.8, pl.16) and are held in the collections of National Museums Liverpool at World Museum, with accession numbers D259 (male) and D259a (female). The specimens were collected in India (=Mussoorie), were purchased from Tucker on 1st April 1836, and came to the Liverpool national collection via the 13th Earl of Derby’s collection which was bequeathed to the city of Liverpool. It was not until 1865 that it was first found in the wild by Kenneth Mackinnon who shot a pair in November, in a hollow between Budraj and Benog, behind Mussoorie, at about 6,000 feet (1,800 m) elevation. Two years later, again in November, five specimens were obtained by a group near Jerepani (Jharipani). In December 1876, Major G. Carwithen obtained a specimen from the eastern slopes of Sher-ka-danda, close to Nainital, at an elevation of 7,000 feet (2,100 m). Frank Finn suggested that it was a migratory bird, arriving in winter, although expressing doubts on account of the short wings. The birds near Mussoorie as observed by Hutton and others occurred in small coveys of six to ten, that kept to high grass and scrub, fed on seeds of grass, were difficult to flush, and had a shrill whistling note when flushed. They appeared to arrive about November, but in one case stayed as late as June, after which they disappeared.