COTURNIX. 447 



Coloiiel Butler found this Quail breeding at Deesa in August 

 and September. 



The eggs of this species are excessively variable botb in colour 

 and size ; but I observe that all the eggs of one clutch are, in the 

 va-4 majority of cases, not only similar in shape and type of 

 coloration, but also very uniform in size. So much so is this the 

 case that I mixed up eight clutches (every egg dated), and then 

 without once referring to the dates picked out each clutch merely 

 by the look of the eggs without a single mistake. Xo doubt, in 

 some few clutches, one, two, or more eggs of a different type to 

 that of the rest occur ; these, I believe, have been laid by other 

 birds and not by the hen to which the nest belongs. They are 

 excessively prolific layers, and I suspect not unfrequently, when 

 anything has happened to their own nests, lay in any other nest 

 that happens to come handy. 



The eggs vary in shape from rather broad ovals, obtuse at both 

 ends, only slightly compressed towards the smaller end, to some- 

 what more lengthened forms, rather conspicuously pointed towards 

 the latter. 



The shell is rather fine and smooth, with, in some cases, only a 

 very faint gloss, but usually a tolerable amount of " shine." 



The coloration is so variable that it is difficult to describe. The 

 ground varies from a faintly yellowish white to rich cafe-au-lait 

 colour, and in one clutch of nine eggs, taken on the 25th of Sep- 

 tember, possibly the second or third laying of an exhausted bird, 

 has a strong ferruginous tinge throughout, as of dried blood. 



The markings are of three types : (1st) Fine specklings and 

 spottiugs thickly spread over the whole surface of the egg ; many 

 eggs of this type strongly recall those of our several species of 

 Ttu-nix. (2nd) Bold blotchings and frecklings ; some eggs of this 

 type resemble much those of the Common Quail. (3rd) Marblings, 

 not unlike what are sometimes exhibited in the eggs of Sand- 

 Grouse. 



In colour the markings equally vary blackish, purplish, olive, 

 and burnt-sienna browns, all occur ; but each egg exhibits only one 

 shade. With one exception the ground also seems to be always 

 uniform, but in the speckly types, where the markings are purplish 

 brown, and the ground is pale, large patches of this are suffused 

 with a pinkish-purple tinge. 



Typically the markings are closely set, but in some few speci- 

 mens this is not the case. How much these eggs vary may be 

 judged from the fact that to convey anything like an adequate idea 

 of the series now before me, it would be necessary to figure at 

 least nine examples, and yet there is not one amongst them that 

 (no\v that I really know the egg) could be confounded with that 

 of any of our other birds. 



In length the eggs vary from TO to 1-21, and in breadth from 

 0-8 to O89 ; but the average of fifty-six eggs that I have carefully 

 measured is 1-09 by rather more than O83. 



