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



it cannot be said that we have enough material to lay it down 

 as a demonstrated fact that alhiventris does not ever assume this 

 plumage. 



4. Next we have Blanford's assertion that in alhiventris 



" the feathers on the sides of the crown are black with rufous 



edges •' and the attendant inference that this is never so in 



tanJci. This again is an individual character and the specimen 



of fanJii from Allahabad, to which I have already referred, 



will be found to have this phase of plumage quite as strongly 



marked as it is in most of the specimens of alhiventris. Again, 



if we examine the head of specimen No. 89.5.13.129, an 



alhiventris from the Nicobars, we shall see that this bird has 



far less black on the head than the majority of tanM. 



I think, therefore, upon consideration of the points of difference 



brought forward, and a very careful examination of the skins 



available, there are not sufficient grounds to justify the Nicobar 



bird being named even as a sub-species, far less to make it a good 



species. 



Distribution. — The Indian Button Quail is found over practically 

 the whole of India, but it does not, apparently, occur in Ceylon, 

 Hume received specimens from South Travancore, I have had 

 specimens sent me from near Tinivelli in the extreme South of 

 Madras, and also specimens from Mysore, whence it had not pre- 

 viousljT" been recorded. In the North- West it straggles into the 

 Punjab, but probably ovlj during the rainy season ; it is found 

 throughou.t Bombay and the North- West Province, and thence East 

 everywhere as far as Calcutta. In the furthest North-East it extends 

 throughout the Assam Valley to Dibrugarh and Sadiya, but South 

 of the Brahmapootra Valley it is replaced in most parts by Turnix 

 hlanfordi, though a specimen from Tippera in the Hume Collection 

 is nearer T. t. tanJci than T. t. hlanfordi. I never came across it 

 either in the Cachar Hills, Khasia Hills or Surma Valley, and I 

 think I may say, it does not occur there. It ascends the Hills to a 

 considerable height, for it has been found in the Nepal Hills up to 

 4,000 feet; Finn found it in Darjeeling at over 6,000 ; in native 

 Sikkim it has been obtained up to 7,500 feet (in the month of 

 June) and in the Travancore Hills and Palnis up to 4,000 feet ; 

 finally, it occurs commonly in the Nicobars and also in the 

 Andamans. 



Nidification. — Wherever the Indian Button Quail is found, it 

 breeds, but there is curiously little recorded, so far, as to its habits 

 in this respect in a wild state. 



Hume records eggs taken on the 15th of July and 26th of August, 

 and there are others in the Hume Collection in the British Museum 

 taken on the 29th of April, and one in June. From Bengal and 

 Behar I have eggs taken in Isi&j and June, but the normal months 



