367 



Family TURNICIDiE. 



Turnix taigoor (Sykes). The Bustard-Quail *. 



Turnix taigoor (Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 595. 



Turnix ocellatus {Scop.), Jerd, torn. cii. p. 597. 



Turnix pugnax, Temm., Hume, Rough Draft N. ^ E. no. 83:3. 



Turnix plumbipes, Rodcjs., Hume, torn. cit. no. 833. 



The present species, the Bustard-Quail, breeds pretty well all 

 oyer India and Burma, where there is forest and jungle accom- 

 panied with long grass. In the wooded districts of the Central 

 Provinces, in Oudh, and Bengal, in the sub-montane districts of 

 the North- West Provinces and the Punjab it is common ; while 

 in the more open and indiiferently wooded and watered parts of 

 the North-West Provinces, the Punjab, Eajpootana, and Sindh 

 it breeds only as a straggler when it does make its appearance, 

 arriving during the rains aud leaving early in the cold season. 



This bird is confined to the outer and lower ranges of the 

 Himalayas (in which they rarely ascend, even in summer, to any 

 elevation above 6000 feet) and the valleys that skirt their bases. 



Dr. Jerdon says : — "The eggs are said to be usually deposited 

 under a bush or in a shght, well-concealed hollow. They are from 

 five to eight in number, and of a dull stone-grey or green colour, 

 thickly spotted and freckled with dusky, very large for the bu-d 

 and very blunt. In the Carnatic this bird breeds from July to 

 September, further south from June to August, and in Ceylon, 

 says Layard, from Pebi-uary to August. The females are said by 

 the natives to desert their eggs and to associate together in flocks, 

 and the males are said to be employed in hatching the eggs ; but 

 I can neither confirm nor reject this from my own observations." 



It may lay twice a year, but I have always found the eggs in 

 July and August and at no other time. Sometimes it makes no 

 nest at all, and merely scratches a hollow at the base of, or in the 

 midst of, some tuft of sirpatta grass, or occasionally some little 

 dense bush adjoining or surrounded by long grass. Sometimes it 

 makes a Kttle pad of grass, rather soft dry grass, 3 or at most 4 

 inches in diameter and | inch in thickness, which it places as a 

 lining to the hollow. 



I have always found four eggs, and, notwithstanding what 

 Dr. Jerdon says, I have seen so many nests, at least six during 

 the past month (July), in the Botanical G-ardens, Calcutta, that I 

 am quite certain this is the normal number. Mr. C. J. W. Taylor, 

 however, records finding seven hard-set eggs in one nest in 

 Mysore. 



Mr. A. G. Theobald writes : — " I found a nest at Ahtoor, the 

 hill-station of the Shevaroys, on the 20th August. It was a bare 



* I propose to follow Mr. Ogilvie-Graat in uniting the Bustard-Quails of 

 India and treating tlieiii as one speoies. 



