64 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Quail shooting is a favourite sport in many districts. Tickell, referring to their 

 abundance in India, says that under certain circumstances shooting them is mere 

 slaughter. He writes: "Where birds get up at every step, dogs or beaters are 

 worse than useless, and where the game is so plentiful, search after a wounded 

 bird is seldom thought worth the trouble. It is usual to be provided with two or 

 three guns (this was in the pre-breech-loader days), to be loaded, as fast as emptied, 

 by a servant. With one gun only it would be necessary to wash out the barrels two 

 or three times in the course of an afternoon, or at all events to wait every now 

 and then for them to cool. A tolerably good shot will bag fifty to sixty brace in 

 about three hours, and knock down many others that are not found. I remember 

 one day getting into a deyra, or island formed by alluvial deposit, in the Ganges, 

 between Patna (Bankipore) and Sonepore, which was sown almost entirely over 

 with grain (chunna), and which literally swarmed with Quail. I do not exaggerate 

 when I say they were like locusts in number. Every step that brushed the covert 

 sent off a number of them, so that I had to stand every now and then like a 

 statue and employ my arms only, and that in a stealthy manner, for the purpose 

 of loading and firing. A furtive scratch of the head, or a wipe of the heated 

 brow, dismissed a whole bevy into the next field; and in fact, the embarras de 

 richesse was nearly as bad as if there had been no birds at all." 



Nidification. In localities where there is an excess of hens the Quail is 

 decidedly polygamous, but in others where the sexes are about equally dispersed, 

 the male pairs with one female only, and assists her in bringing up the brood. 

 During the pairing season the Quail is most pugnacious, each cock beating off all 

 intruders from his own particular haunt; and about this period the merry note of 

 the male sounds incessantly and defiantly from the cover. The female is late in 

 going to nest, the eggs seldom being laid before June. The nest is scanty, a mere 

 hollow amongst the corn or clover, or the rough grass of the weedy pastures, into 

 which a few bits of dry grass and leaves are scraped. In districts where the cocks 

 run with several hens, the nests are often placed not many yards apart. The eggs 

 vary a good deal in number. I have known nests contain twenty eggs, but from 

 eight to twelve is the usual clutch. They are buffish-white or yellowish-olive in 

 ground-colour, boldly blotched and spotted with various shades of brown, ranging 

 from very pale olive to nearly black. They measure on an average 11 inch in length 

 by '91 inch in breadth. The hen bird alone incubates the eggs, which are hatched in 

 about twenty-one days. The young are soon able to run with their parents and to 

 forage largely for themselves. It is said that the Quail sometimes rears two broods 

 or bevies in the season, but this must be under very exceptional circumstances ; my 

 experience is that if the first nests be taken no other attempts are made. 



Diagnostic characters. Coturnix, with the outer webs of the primaries 

 irregularly barred with buff, with the general colour of the plumage buff, and the 

 chin and throat nearly black in the male and buff in the female. Length, 7 inches. 



