The red bill and legs of this small dark quail and white spots before and after the eye make it distinctive.

[7][8] 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.

[9] 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.

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.

[12] Sidney Dillon Ripley (1952) records a local bird name sano kalo titra ("small black/dusky partridge") from the Dailekh district of Nepal.

O. Hume (Stray Feathers 9 [1880 or 1881]: 467-471) suggested that it was similar in habit to the Manipur bush quails Perdicula manipurensis in that it was seen very rarely, except at dawn or dusk, keeping to tall grassland, relying on its legs rather than its wings for escape and only flying when closely approached.

If the species was not an ice age relict that originally evolved in lower-lying areas during a globally colder climate and was only encountered by Europeans in the last vestiges of its range and at the time of its extinction, the distance between the records argues for the species being a short-distance seasonal migrant with a fairly contiguous breeding distribution but disjunct winter quarters.

"Gray (1846), describing Mountain Quails for the first time scientifically, places them together with the Crested Wood Partridges into the genus Rollulus.