140



Notes



When the bird displays it suddenly assumes an erect position,

lowers the pectoral shield until it appears to rest on its feet, at the same

time throwing into a vertical position the shield of straw-coloured

plumes of the nape. The pectoral shield is composed of soft velvety

feathers of a bright green, the lower portion of which is edged with

brilliant metallic blue, and down the centre of which runs a band of

metallic blue feathers edged with green. During display this shield

covers the whole bird from the head downwards, being met at its

upper edges by the lower edges of the erected shield from the nape,

the attitude then assumed being that which I have attempted to

represent in the accompanying illustration.


D. Seti-i-Smith.


HATCHING THE PLUMBEOUS QUAIL


My Plumbeous Quail (Syncecus plumbeus) has laid thirty-two eggs,

the last one on 12th August; but she will not sit, probably owing to the

smallness of the aviary and want of cover. The eggs are generally laid

on alternate days at about noon.


Failing to get a bantam, I placed them under a hen, although

fearing she would trample them to. death. This actually happened.

She did her best but could not avoid treading on thirteen little black

beetles. Only two eggs proved clear. She was given three hens’ eggs,

in case she refused to sit on such small eggs, as well as sixteen quails’

eggs. One of the latter I broke a few days before they were due to

hatch, in order to find out if it was worth making a run for the chicks

and getting ants’ eggs to feed them on.


The first eggs of those placed under the hen were laid on 24th June,

the last on 17th July. The hen started to sit at 10 a.nr. 18th July. Some

eggs chipped 10 a.nr. 5th August, and a few chicks hatched out at

1.15 p.m. on the same day, and the last at 7 a.nr. the following day.

The length of incubation was eighteen days and several hours.


The first nest consisted of a few straws collected round a slight

hollow scraped in the ground under a bush ; a second was made in

a tuft of coarse grass.


The eggs, measuring one inch two lines by eleven lines, were bluntly

pointed at the small end, cream in colour, and thickly spotted with

small specks of dark brown.



