THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 397 



fighting for them against all possible enemies, sometimes, including 

 their mother, with the greatest bravery. 



Whether, when in a state of freedom, having broiight up one 

 family, he thereupon undertakes the duties of a second it is impossible 

 to say ; but in captivity, when he is the only gentleman available, 

 the lady generally enforces these duties upon him, at least twice, if 

 not more often. 



As regards the nest, Hume says : 



" Sometimes this species makes no nest at all, and merely 

 scratches a hollow at the base of, or in the midst of, some 

 tuft of Sirpatta grass, or occasionally some little dense bush 

 adjoining or surrounded by long grass. Sometimes it makes 

 a little pad of rather soft, dry grass, three, or at most, four 

 inches in diameter, and half an inch in thickness, which it 

 places as a lining to the hollow." 



" Generally it does scratch a hollow for itself, but at times 



natural hollows or the hoof prints of cattle are accepted and 



nsed, with or without a lining, without so much as a trace of 



the lazy little bird's feet being visible." 



Hume adds an amusing account of how the male is forced, 



according to native ideas, by the female to sit on the eggs, and 



" thereafter gives him a tremendous thrashing if ever she 

 catches him away from these ... an old Moghul Shikari . . . 

 used to aver that he had often watched the males feeding 

 near the nest, rush on to the eggs at the sound of the female's 

 call, and sit there looking as if they had not left the nest 

 for at least a week, until the female appeared, walked once 

 or twice round the nest, and strutted off again, calling voci- 

 ferously, as much as to say, ' Lucky for you it's all right, my 

 little friend ' ". 

 Hume in writing this includes all the different forms, and it is 

 cjuite possible that his description is quite accurate in so far as it 

 refers to the Common Bustard Quail of the Plains. 



Personally, though I have seen many hundreds of nests oiplumhipes, 

 I have never seen the eggs laid on the bare ground. As a rule the 

 nest is placed just inside scrub, grass, or bamboo jtingie alongside 

 some open piece of ground, and a very favourite place for the nest is 

 at the edges of the paths used by the hill villagers. These paths are 

 cleared every year for a width of some 6 to 10 feet, but each rainy 

 season the grass springs up and covers, more or less thickly, all 

 but the centre, which is trodden hard by the constant traffic. 

 Time after time when walking or riding along these primitive 

 tracks, I have put up the bird from my feet, and looking down have 

 seen the eggs snugly tucked away at the roots of a thick tuft of grass. 

 In nineteen cases out of twenty, or perhaps even more, the nest 

 consists of a thick pad of fine grass from 3^ to 4^ inches in dia- 



