410 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



of the latter district. Davidson considered it a late breeder, and 

 recorded : — 



" In Sholapur I got, or had brought to me, four nests, one 

 on the 1 7th Aiigtist, and the others at the very end of Sept- 

 ember, and I shot a hen in October, 1878, containing one 

 nn shelled egg. 



"■ In the Panch Mahals, I shot a bird containing a perfect 

 very highly coloured egg late in October." 



Theobald also found them breeding in the Punjab late in August, 

 and near Deesa Captain A. E. Butler found eggs from the end of 

 May to the end of August. 



In Behar and Bengal, Coltart, Inglis, Hervey and others have 

 found it breeding during the rains only, commencing at the end of 

 June and continuing until the end of September. 



The nest is similar to, and is placed in the same kind of position 

 as that of the last bird, and requires no separate description but I 

 do not think it is so often domed or covered in. I may have seen 

 some 40 or 50 nests of this bird, all told, but I do not think I have 

 seen half a dozen of this description. 



The number of eggs laid is almost invariably four, and I have 

 never seen a complete clutch with less, and only four nests with 

 five eggs in them, and never one with six. 



The ground colour of the eggs is generally greyish white, 

 occasionally yellowish white, or still more rarely, with a faint 

 reddish tinge. The whole surface is closely stippled or speckled 

 and spotted with minute spots of j^ellowish or greyish brown, 

 with here and there rather largish spots, and small blotches of 

 blackish brown, in some cases a rather rich reddish brown. As 

 a rule, these bolder markings are rather sparse and rather 

 small, but in a few clutches they are numerous and bold, some of 

 the blotches being as much as "2" in their longest diameter. Most 

 eggs have the superior markings of all kinds fairly equally distributed 

 over the whole surface, but in some the bolder blotches and spots form 

 a wide zone or cap at the larger end. The secondary, or sub-surface 

 marks are of lavender grey or pale purple, and in the shape 

 of irregular spots and blotches, almost concealed by the surface 

 markings. 



Taking these eggs as a series, they are decidedly more boldly 

 marked than are those of any of the other birds of the genus except 

 the Indian Button Quail. In both of these birds clutches of eggs 

 are not uncommon in which the whole of the surface is densely 

 marked Mith comparatively large blotches of deep velvety black, 

 giving them an unusually handsome appearance. In Karwar this 

 seems to be the normal type of egg, and most of my clutches re- 

 ceived from Western India from Messrs. J. Davidson, T. K. Bell, 

 and other collectors have been of this type. In Bengal and Behar 



