COMMON QUAIL. 353 



determining the matter. During the pairing season the 

 cocks are very pugnacious, even in locaHties where the 

 birds are few, and constant flights are taking place until 

 the hens have gone to nest. In places where polygamous 

 instincts prevail, and where a cock runs with several 

 hens, the nests may be found not many )ards apart, 

 two females occasionally sharing the same abode. 

 The nest is a mere hollow, amongst growing grain or 

 grass and clover, scantily lined with a little dry grass 

 and a {cw dead leaves. The hen is a rather close 

 sitter, especially where the herbage is tall and dense, 

 and when alarmed slips very quietly and with no 

 demonstration from the eggs into the surrounding cover. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 Th? eggs of the Quail are from eight to twelve in 

 number; I have known nests contain as many as 

 twenty, but these were doubtless the produce of two 

 hens. They are bufifish-white or clear yellowish-olive 

 in ground colour, boldly blotched and spotted with 

 various shades of umber-brown and blackish-brown. 

 There are two distinct types : one in which the 

 markings are small and dark (spots not blotches), and 

 sprinkled over the entire surface ; the other in which 

 the markings are bold, large, and irregular (blotches not 

 spots) and often confluent. As a rule the pale ground 

 colour is associated with the former type, the olive 

 ground colour with the latter. Average measuremeiit, 

 !•! inch in length, by '91 inch in breadth. Incubation, 

 performed by the female, lasts about three weeks. 



Diagnostic characters : The size and the abun- 

 dance of the markings, and the absence of any underlying 

 spots readily distinguish the eggs of the Quail from 

 those of any other species breeding in our area. 



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