TURNIX SYLVATICA. 141 
towards Vejer, and are tolerably plentiful on the palmetto- 
covered high ground above CasaVieja, called La Mesa; further 
than this I did not meet with it personally ; nor could I obtain 
any near Seville. 
The nest is, from the skulking habits of the birds, extremely 
difficult to obtain. I never had the good fortune to find one, 
but had one lot of eggs brought to me from near San Roque 
on the 6th of July, 1869. The finder said the nest was under 
shelter of a palmetto bush, and merely consisted of a few bits 
of dried grass. These eggs, foui* in number (which is, without 
doubt, the regular complement laid by all the Bush-Quails, 
Turnix), were very slightly incubated, and in appearance 
much resemble those of the common Pratincole, Glareola 
torquata, only being, of course, much more diminutive. Later 
in July I received several eggs from Mogador, which exactly 
resembled the Spanish ones ; but not having been blown and 
being hard sat-on, the shells were so tender and rotten that 
I could do nothing with them. My friend Mr. Reid, of the 
Royal Engineers, informs me that he had the luck to find a 
nest, placed in grass near the shore on the eastern beach, on 
the 19th of May, 1873; this nest contained four eggs (incu- 
bated), as did another from near Tangier obtained by Olcese. 
The males of this species, and, I believe, of all the genus, 
are very much smaller than the females ; this difference is so 
striking that the cazadores always declare there are two species. 
I have at different times kept these little birds alive, and sent 
one to England, and at present have a male alive. They are 
easily reconciled to captivity, and become very tame and con- 
fiding pets ; at times they coo in a moaning way, whence their 
trivial Spanish name of torillo or little bull. They also have 
another single note, much like that of the female Quail but 
less loud. 
This species has no hind toe ; so it has been called by the 
unnatural and pedantic name of Hemipode. That of Bush- 
Quail, or, as used in India for other species of the genus. 
Button- Quail, or even Three-toed Quail would be much more 
appropriate. 
