TURNICIN^. 597 



to twenty birds occasionally 'captured in one day, in a patch ot" 

 thick bushy junf^de in the Carnatic, where alone I have known this 

 practice carried on. The birds that are caught in this way are all 

 females, and in most cases are birds laying eggs at the time, for I 

 have frequently known instances of some eight or ten of those 

 captured, so far advanced in the process as to lay their eggs in the 

 bag in which tliey are carried, before the bird catcher had reached 

 my house. The eggs are said to be usually deposited under a 

 bush in a sliglit well-concealed hollow ; they are from five to eight 

 in number, and of a dull stone grey or green colour, thickly spotted 

 and freckled with dusky, very large for the bird, and very blunt. 

 In the Carnatic this bird breeds from July to September ; further 

 south from June to August, and in Ceylon, says Layard, from 

 February to x'Vugust. The females are said by the natives to 

 desert their eggs, and to associate together in flocks, and the males 

 are said to be employed in hatching the eggs, but I can neither 

 confirm nor reject this from my own observations. 



This bird I presume from the description to be the Rain-quail of 

 a writer in the Beng. Sport. Mag. for September 1835, who says 

 that "the scent is good and dogs find them well in the evening." 



The flesh of this bird is excellent, mixed brown and white, 

 succulent and tasty. Col. Sykes asserts that their fighting qualities 

 are unknown in the Deccan, as also in Java ; but they are well 

 known in the south of India ; and at Hydrabad in the Deccan, 

 Arcot, and other places, Hiany used to be kept for that purpose by 

 Mussulmans. 



833. Turnix ocellatus, Scopoli. 



Oriolus apud Scopoli — Blytii, Cat. 1526, (in part) — H. atro'ni- 

 laris, Eyton, (the female) — H. taigoor apud Eyton, (the male) 

 — H. plumbipes, HoDGSON — H. pugnax apud Gkay — Timok- 

 fho, Lepch. — Timoh, Bhot. 



The Htll Bustard-quail. 



Descr. — Female, very similar in appearance to the last, but 



darker, less rufous and browner above, the feathers minutely 



mottled, and with the pale edgings to the feathers of the back 



and scapulars, &c., almost wanting, giving quite a different appear- 



