Karrichaine Button Quail in raptiviti/. 21 



completed very quickly^ and soon I could recognise the birds 

 as two males and a female; the latter was much larger and 

 of a brighter colour, especially on the breast. 



1 had planted in a big cage some clumps of grass and h'ttle 

 bushes, as much as possible assimilating with the ordinary 

 veld. Into this I put the birds. A few days later 1 saw the 

 two males chasino" one another, while the female was standiiiii' 

 with a stiff neck, puffed up breast, and uttering cries. The 

 next day one male commenced buikiino' a nest between two 

 grass bushes, and a few days later I saw the female bird 

 taking part in this nest-building. The nest itself was only 

 roughly made of dry grass like a fiat cu[) with a cover above 

 it. On the 27th of February, when the birds were not four 

 months old, the hen started laying and continued to lay 

 every day an egg which the male birds covered every tiu^.e 

 with dry grass. When five eggs were laid, the male bird 

 started sitting on them. The female kept watching over the 

 nest and went on the eggs as soon as the male came off for 

 food. This coming off the nest was very strange, the bird 

 slowly rising and slippi'jig off behind the nest and continually 

 pulling small pieces of grass, which he threw behintl him to 

 cover his way. If the male bird took a bit too lono- to feed 

 the female came oft' the nest and chased him back to his 

 duty. 



On the 15th of March, after 15 days^ incubation, three 

 little chicks were hatched, but I arrived just in time to 

 see the female killing two of them, so I decided to place 

 the male bird with the remaining little one in a separate 

 cage with a layer of sand on the bottom. The male bird 

 was leading and, feeding the youngster as a common 

 hen does her chickens. The female mated up with the 

 other male immediately after I had removed the first one 

 with the youngster, and on the 25th of March the second 

 male was sitting upon seven eggs. In all I reared eleven 

 youngsters from the first three birds in 1913, of which one 

 pair is now in the Zoological Gardens at Pretoria. The 

 whole breeding-habits of these birds are very interesting. I 

 have not succeeded in deciding whether the female of these 



