TUENIX. 371 



ground-colour is dull white, very minutely speclded all over with 

 pale yellowish brown and inky purple. The markings are most 

 dense at the more obtuse end of the egg, where they are inter- 

 mingled with a few small inky-grey clouds. Another egg of this 

 species, received from Mr. Blewitt, of Eaipoor, together with the 

 parent bird, but unfortunately without particulars, is similar in 

 size and shape and in the general character of its markings, but 

 has a slight gloss, the ground-colour is yellowish stone-colour, the 

 markings are brighter-coloured, and the inky clouds and spots 

 darker and more numerous. 



These two eggs measure — the first 0-88 by 0-77, and the second 

 0-85 by 0-73. 



Turniz dussumieri, Temm. The Little Button-Quail. 



Turnix sykesii, A. Smith, Jerd. B. Ind. ii,p. 600. 



Turnix dussumieri, Temm., Hume, Rotigh Draft N. ^ E. no. 835. 



I never succeeded in finding a nest of the Lesser Button-Quail. 

 I have never found the bird common anywhere. Mr. W. Blewitt 

 found a nest nearHansiintheDhanaBeerh on the 16th April. It 

 was a mere depression, scratched in the ground, at the base of, 

 and completely overhung and concealed by, a dense tuft of soft 

 grass, and very slightly lined uith a few blades of the same grass, 

 so few that it was impossible to say whether they had fallen there 

 by accident or had been placed there by the bird. 



The nest contained only two fresh eggs. 



At Sholapoor, in the Deccan, Mr. J. Davidson found a nest 

 containing four hard-set eggs on thel7th of August, which, though 

 he failed to secure the parent bird, undoubtedly belonged to this 

 species. The nest was placed in a field of low bajra, and was 

 formed in a hollow on the ground (such a hollow as would be 

 caused by the imprint of a cow's foot), which was well lined with 

 fine grass. 



Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of the nidifieation 

 of this species in the neighbourhood of Pind Dadan Khan and 

 Khatas in the Salt Eange : — " Lay in the third week of August. 

 Eggs, five. Shape, round pyriform. Colour, pale grey, closely 

 freckled with dirty yellowish ochre, with a few dots of neutral, 

 and blotched with deep reddish brown or blackish umber. Nest, 

 a little grass, hemp, yarn, and a few hairs on the ground in afield 

 of the bajra." 



Colonel Butler found a nest of this bird near Deesa on the 29th 

 July, with four fresh eggs, and he caught chickens of this species 

 which must have been hatched at the commencement of June. 



Captain Horace Terry writes from Madras : — "Quails of several 

 sorts were very numerous in the neighbourhood of Bangalore during 

 the cold weather and I found several nests, and among others those 

 of T. dussumieri in November 1883. The nests, if nests they can 

 be called, were pads of fine grass, and not much of that very often, 

 were much the same as any other Quail's, and the eggs had \ery 



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