Halcyon pileatus and Turnix blaufordi. 457 



The period of incubation is probably about three weeks, 

 and unless the birds are disturbed only one brood is raised in 

 the year. 



Turnix blanfordi. 



In ^The Ibis' for January, 1907 (p. 17), Mr. J. D. D. 

 La Touche described eggs which he believed to be those 

 of this bird, taken at Chiu Kiang, but he did not succeed in 

 authenticating them. 



Turnix blanfordi is a common summer-visitor to the 

 Shantung Promontory, and the natives of that part of China 

 are very well acquainted both with the bird and its nests and 

 eggs. The Chinese call it Hwang Woa (the Yellow Quail). 

 The birds arrive in April and May and depart for the south 

 at the end of October. 



The nest is almost always placed in a cornfield, and is a 

 slight affair of straw and grass, resembling that of a Land- 

 Rail on a small scale. 



The eggs are invariably four, rather rounded in shape and 

 with a somewhat smooth and glossy surface. The colour is 

 dirty white, very thickly marked with small spots of various 

 shades of green, which are peppered over the whole surface. 

 A few spots of a bluish-black colour, also small, occur on 

 all specimens, and may perhaps tend to form an imperfect 

 zone in certain cases. 



I have examined thirty-three eggs of this bird, all of 

 which were obtained in the Shantung Promontory by a 

 European resident. The earliest date on which they were 

 found was May 15th, and the latest July 7th, but the great 

 majority of clutches were laid in June. Always shy, the 

 bird is more than usually so in the breeding-season, and it 

 was not without some difficulty that a specimen was shot 

 from the nest, thereby putting the identity of the eggs beyond 

 dispute. 



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