The rain quailorblack-breasted quail (Coturnix coromandelica) is a species of quail found in the Indian Sub-continent and South-east Asia; its range including Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.[1]
The rain quail lacks barring on primaries. The male has a black breast-patch and distinctive head pattern of black and white. The female is difficult to separate from female common quail and Japanese quail, although the spots on the breast are more delicate. It is 6–6.5 in (15–17 cm) and weighs roughly 2.25–2.5 oz (64–71 g).[9]
The call is a metallic pair of quit- quit nots, constantly repeated mornings and evenings, and in the breeding season also during the night. It is quite unmistakably distinct from the call of the common grey quail.[10][11]
Grassland, cropped fields, and scrub in the Indus valley of central Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, ranging across the Gangetic plains, and parts of peninsular continental India. Mostly seen in winter further south.
The rain quail feeds on seeds of grasses and other plants, insect larvae and small invertebrates. Breeding takes place between March and October, but chiefly after the start of the southwesterly monsoon season in June. The eggs are laid in a scrape in the ground, sometimes in the open under a Euphorbia or similar bush. There are usually six to eight eggs in the clutch. The incubation period is sixteen to eighteen days. The chicks are able to leave the nest soon after they have hatched and remain with their parents for about eight months.[12]
In Khmer culture, the rain quail is a symbolic figure often represented at the center of some yantra cloth, as an auspicious sign for the protection of a home.[13]
^Welter-Schultes, F.W.; Klug, R. (2009). "Nomenclatural consequences resulting from the rediscovery of Les figures des plantes et animaux d'usage en médecine, a rare work published by Garsault in 1764, in the zoological literature". Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. 66 (3): 225–241 [233]. doi:10.21805/bzn.v66i3.a1.
^Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 120, 118. ISBN978-1-4081-2501-4.
^Jerdon, T.C. (1864). The Birds of India. Vol. III. Calcutta: George Wyman. p. 589.
^Rasmussen, P.C. and J. C. Anderton 2005. Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions.
^Ali, Salim; J C Daniel (1983). The book of Indian Birds, Twelfth Centenary edition. New Delhi: Bombay Natural History Society/Oxford University Press.
