Table 2: All known Mountain Quail specimens (listed chronologically according to the collection date)
specimen # 1836a 1836b 1850 1865a 1865b 1869a 1869b 1869c 1870 1876
sex, age male female  male male male (Mackinnon p 106: not a female as Blyth says)  male female young bird (Sloss pers. comm. 1990: %, immature) immature male, molting female
collected 

where 

  

 

 India, Mussoorie 

  

 

 ? Mussoorie: in a hollow between Badraj and Banog some five kilometres north-west of Mussoorie Library, 6000 ft (Hume & Marshall 1879-1881) Jharipani, some five kilometres south of Mussoorie, at an altitude of 5500 ft Eastern slopes of Sherkadanda, Nainital, at an altitude of 7000 ft (Carwithen)
when 1st April 1836 < 1850 November 1865  28th November 1869  shot on 18th December 1869 (Hume & Marshall 1879-1881:106) June 1870  December 1876
by whom Purchased from Tucker ? shot by Kenneth Mackinnon (at that time a boy) Captain T. Hutton Major G. Carwithen of 25th Regiment K. O. B.
today at Derby Museum of Liverpool (Wagstaffe 19??) RVHN Leiden (G. F. Mees, pers. comm.) BM(NH) at Tring / London. Label: BM(NH) / 68.4.27.2   BM(NH), Tring / London. Label: BM(NH) / 89.5.10.814 (Hume coll.).  BM(NH), Tring / London. Label: BM(NH) / 89.5.10.817 (Hume coll.) AMNH. Labels: BM(NH) / 89.5.10.815; AMNH # 265224 BM(NH), Tring / London. Label: BM(NH) / 89.5.10.816 (Hume coll.).  BM(NH), Tring / London. Label: BM(NH) / 89.5.10.818 (Hume coll.)
specimen history Type specimen (Gray 1846), collection of the 13th Earl of Derby ("Knowsley Menagerie"). Arrived before 1850 at the RVNH at Leiden. Now a stuffed and mounted specimen. Most probably the specimen seen by Bonaparte (1856). We assume that after investigating this specimen, Bonaparte suggested to put the Mountain Quail into a separate genus. No information is available concerning the origin of this specimen. Temminck, at that time director of RVNH, wrote the scientific name Rollulus superciliosa on the block. Two labels are attached to the specimen, one with the scientific name Ortiga superciliosa, the other with the scientific name. Ophrysia superciliosa. Specimen given to Colonel L'Estrange of the Royal Artillery. Blyth (1867b) exhibited it at the London Zoological Society (Blyth 1867b, Hume & Marshall 1879-1881).  Shot together with # 1865a out of a covey of 8 to 10 consisting of males and females, in a hollow on a comparatively warm day. 

Mackinnon (p 105) is the only one who talked about the gourmet side of Mountain Quails. According to his judgement, Mountain Quails "proved ... poor eating". Specimen # 1865b most probably eaten by its hunter. 

 Sent to Hume on 1st December 1869, "Knocked over" by one of Hutton's boys, together with a third one which was destroyed. These animals formed part of a group of about a dozen individuals. A second label says Malacortyx superciliaris. Sent to Hume on 20st December 1869. Shot with a pistol om 18th December 1869 (Hutton).  

On 27th October 1928 sent from BM(NH) to AMNH (Cowles pers. comm. 15.1.1991).

 Shot out of two or three coveys staying around Jharipani from November 1867 till June 1868. Captain Hutton sent it to Hume in August 1870. A second label attached to this specimen says Malacortyx superciliaris June 1870 Shot after flushing. A second individual flushed together with this specimen, but Carwithen did not killed it.