on the Breeding of Turnix Varia. 299


have stated that clutches of five are sometimes found, which

statement the performance of my birds would seem to corrobo¬

rate.


The eggs of the Turnices are very unlike those of the true

game-birds, being as a rule much more pointed at one end, and

spotted with two or three different colours. Those of Turnix

vatia are whitish, spotted, and blotched, especially at the larger

end, with slaty-blue and thickly spotted all over with minute

spots of light and dark brown. The eggs vary considerably in

shape, some being much more pointed than others, while in

some the markings are much darker than in others, although

laid by the same bird. The surface of the egg is glossy and

the average dimensions in inches ifs x -J.


On the morning of June 7th the male left the nest with

three chicks, the other two eggs, although fertile, failing to

hatch. Incubation had been completed in about thirteen days.

All through the period of incubation the female had taken 110

interest whatever in the nest, but had continued her booming

call, evidently with the object of attracting another male, for I

have no doubt, from careful observation of these birds that they,

like the Tinamous, are polyandrous, the female pairing

successively with several males during the breeding season. As

the female took no notice whatever of the young birds, keeping

in fact as far away from them as she could, except when she

approached to eat their food, I thought it best to confine the

male with his brood in a small run where the other occupants of

the aviary could not steal their food. In this they progressed

splendidly, their male parent brooding them most tenderly.

From the first they were fed on fresh ants’ cocoons and small

gentles, the latter being eaten with the utmost relish. After the

first few days small particles of yolk of hard-boiled eggs were

readily eaten.


For the first week or ten days the young birds took every¬

thing from the bill of their parent, never picking anything up

from the ground themselves.


The young, when first hatched, are covered with down of

a dark brown colour, with two stripes down the centre of the

back of a lighter shade ; a single line of light brown down the



