Manipur Bush Quail
Encyclopedia
The Manipur Bush Quail (Perdicula manipurensis) is a species of quail
found in India
, inhabiting damp grassland, particularly stands of tall grass, in West Bengal
, Assam
, Nagaland
, Manipur
, and Meghalaya
.
It was collected and described by Allan Octavian Hume
on an ornithological expedition to Manipur in 1881.
P. manipurensis is listed as Vulnerable in IUCN's Red List, as its habitat is small, fragmented, and rapidly shrinking.
There was no confirmed sighting of the bird from 1932 until June 2006, when Anwaruddin Choudhury
reported spotting the quail in Assam
.
BBC News
quoted the conservation
director of the Wildlife Trust of India
, Rahul Kaul, as saying, "This creature has almost literally returned from the dead."
(1911) suggests that the species was common in the past.
Quail
Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally considered in the order Galliformes. Old World quail are found in the family Phasianidae, while New World quail are found in the family Odontophoridae...
found in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, inhabiting damp grassland, particularly stands of tall grass, in West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
, Nagaland
Nagaland
Nagaland is a state in the far north-eastern part of India. It borders the state of Assam to the west, Arunachal Pradesh and part of Assam to the north, Burma to the east and Manipur to the south. The state capital is Kohima, and the largest city is Dimapur...
, Manipur
Manipur
Manipur is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Manipur is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west; it also borders Burma to the east. It covers an area of...
, and Meghalaya
Meghalaya
Meghalaya is a state in north-eastern India. The word "Meghalaya" literally means the Abode of Clouds in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. Meghalaya is a hilly strip in the eastern part of the country about 300 km long and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 8,700 sq mi . The...
.
It was collected and described by Allan Octavian Hume
Allan Octavian Hume
Allan Octavian Hume was a civil servant, political reformer and amateur ornithologist in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, a political party that was later to lead the Indian independence movement...
on an ornithological expedition to Manipur in 1881.
P. manipurensis is listed as Vulnerable in IUCN's Red List, as its habitat is small, fragmented, and rapidly shrinking.
There was no confirmed sighting of the bird from 1932 until June 2006, when Anwaruddin Choudhury
Anwaruddin Choudhury
Anwaruddin Choudhury MA, Ph.D, D.Sc, is an Indian naturalist, noted for his expertise on the fauna of North-East India.He is an ornithologist, mammalogist, artist, civil servant, photographer and author. Choudhury is recognized by many as an eminent naturalist and conservationist studying wildlife...
reported spotting the quail in Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
.
BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
quoted the conservation
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
director of the Wildlife Trust of India
Wildlife Trust of India
The Wildlife Trust of India, is a non profit conservation organisation based in New Delhi, India. Its principal concerns are crisis management to prevent destruction of India's wildlife and the provision of quick, efficient aid to those areas that require it the most...
, Rahul Kaul, as saying, "This creature has almost literally returned from the dead."
History
The following description of the species by Frank FinnFrank Finn
Frank Finn FZS, MBOU was an English ornithologist.Finn was born in Maidstone and educated at Maidstone Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. He went on a collecting expedition to East Africa in 1892, and became First Assistant Superintendent of the Indian Museum, Calcutta in 1894, and...
(1911) suggests that the species was common in the past.
Native name: Lanx-Soibol, Manipuri.
One of Mr. HumeAllan Octavian HumeAllan Octavian Hume was a civil servant, political reformer and amateur ornithologist in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, a political party that was later to lead the Indian independence movement...
's most striking discoveries in ManipurManipurManipur is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Manipur is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west; it also borders Burma to the east. It covers an area of...
, this pretty quail is very distinct in appearance from all our species. Its plumage is slate-colour, mottled with black above, and buff below the breast, this colour broken up into large spots by black markings which form a cross on every feather. The cock has a dark bay face, which at once distinguishes him from the hen. The bill is dark horny, and the legs orange.
In length this species is about seven inches, with a wing a little over three, and a tail of two inches.
Mr. Hume discovered this species himself when in Manipur, and obtained nine specimens (all he saw except two which were lost) after immense labour and two days' beating in an expanse of elephant grass covering broken ground about two miles square. The birds were in two coveys, and those shot were found to have fed upon both seeds and insects A single bird was shot ten days later in the same district, and there is a specimen in the British Museum said to be from Sikkim. But except for these few specimens, nothing more was known of the Manipur bush-quail till 1899, nearly twenty years after Mr. Hume's discovery of the bird, when Captain H. S. Wood, of the Indian Medical Service, presented one to the Indian museum, and Lieutenant H. H. Turner two others. Captain Wood, who had found the species quite common in Manipur, afterwards wrote an interesting note on it in the Asiatic Society's Journal for 1899. He had shot about eighty of these quail, and did not consider them at all uncommon. The native name means "Trap Quail" as the Nagas snare numbers of them in nooses after jungle fires. The birds breed in Manipur, and the egg is large in proportion to the size of the bird, and greenish in colour with black and brown patches; unfortunately Captain Wood's specimens of them got broken in transit. He found the birds hard to see except after the jungle fires from February to April as they kept to dense cover, and even after a fire their dark colour made them hard to see on the burnt grass they were always found close to water. The coveys kept very close when running, and Captain Wood has bagged as many as four at a shot.