The Kurricliane Button Quail.



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in a great state of excitement; a nest had been made in a thick

tuft of grass and the birds stood facing away from it, throwing

bits of dried grass over their heads in its direction ; the first egg

was already in the nest.


On Oct. 5th the second egg was laid, and in exactly twelve

days the two extraordinary little ones were hatched. I11 colour¬

ing they reminded me of that peculiar caterpillar found on

hedges at home in spring, I think it is the Gold Tail Moth but

I am not quite sure.


The cock bird did the whole of the sitting, the hen never

-came near the nest but went restlessly up and down the aviary

“booming” for another mate, and for some weeks the whole

garden resounded with her curious ventriloquial note which

sounded like “ Oooop.” One chick was accidentally drowned

and the other was about half grown on October 27th.


I then went down to Cape Town and, to my great annoy¬

ance, when I returned ten days later I could find no trace of the

young Turnix. The cock, however, had made a new nest close

to the site of the old one, and was sitting on four eggs, two of

which he hatched on November 19th, when he deserted the other

two. I opened these two eggs and found them to contain dead

young just ready to come out. The chicks after the first or

second day are most wonderfully active and move round the aviary

as fast as mice.


The cock bird I have is wonderfully tame and will allow

himself to be picked up without struggling, and always brought

his young up to my hand, out of which he took mealworms and

fed them. This simplified the rearing of these tiny things very

much, but in this species after the young are a week or ten days

old they are frequently fed and brooded by the female ; this I

have often seen her do, though if the youngster does not hurry

up and come for the mealworm she swallows it herself.


The two young referred to above turned out to be both

hens, and on December 17th their eyes had changed from black

to the pearl colour of the adult bird, which they completely

resembled in all respects.


In the following March (190S) I missed the cock Button

Quail and suspected he was sitting, but the cover in their aviary



