TURNIX. 360 



And he found nests near Deesa from the 28th July to the 9th 

 August. 



Mr. Iver Macpherson tells us that on the 30th June he found 

 a nest of this bird with four eggs near Chandn, C. P. " The nest, 

 which was at the foot of a small clump of bamboos, was, I think, 

 rather a remarkable one for this bird. It was the usual little pad 

 in a small hollow in the ground, but in addition had a little hood 

 over it made of fine grass. The nest seemed to me to be a perfectly- 

 new one, and not an old one of some other bird used for the 

 occasion." 



Mr. J. Inglis, writing from Cachar, says : " The Bustard- 

 Quail is plentiful during the rains in grass lands. It breeds in 

 June, making a very shallow cavity for its nest. It lays four or 

 five eggs of a brownish-grey colour." 



Mr. J. E. Cripps, writing of this species in Assam, remarks : 

 " Of four nests only one was domed ; the rest were pads of grass 

 and twigs with no lining. The latest nest found was on the 31st 

 August, with two slightly incubated eggs. Four is the general number 

 of eggs in each nest. In some gardens they are more plentiful 

 than in others, but, strange to say, they are never found away from 

 the tea-cultivation. An old resident of Assam told me this, and 

 so far my observations confirm it." 



In Ceylon this species or the closely allied T.pugnaoc, Temra., 

 according to Colonel legge, breeds from February to May, and 

 most likely has another brood later in the year. 



Mr. Gates found the nest in Pegu with four eggs on the 10th 

 August in bush-jungle. 



In shape the eggs vary from moderately broad ovals, scarcely at 

 all pointed towards the small end, to typical pegtops. The ground- 

 colour is greyish white, and they are very thickly and minutely 

 speckled all over with \vhat a close examination proves to be a 

 mixture of minute dots of yellowish and reddish brown and pale 

 purple. Some eggs have absolutely no markings except this 

 minute dotting or stippling, but the majority have spots and 

 blotches more or less thinly speckled over the surface (often only 

 at the large end, ahvays most thickly there) of intense reddish or 

 blackish brown or even bluish black. The minute dottings in many 

 eggs, everywhere dense, are most so at the large end, where with 

 the blotches they occasionally form an irregular, imperfect and ill- 

 marked, mottled or smudgy cap or zone. The general appearance 

 of the egg, when not closely looked into, is paler or darker dingy 

 earthy brown, with dull blackish spots and small blotches. Some 

 of the eggs have scarcely any gloss; others are highly glossy. 



The eggs vary in length from 0'8 to 1*04, and in breadth from 

 0-71 to 0-85 ; but the average of thirty is 0-94 by 078. 



VOL. in. 24 



