COTUENIX. 443 



they are able to accompany their parents in search of food. I do 

 not know a prettier sight than a brood of young Quails running 

 after the old birds. They are such pretty little dark downy things, 

 with three stripes of a very Kght cream-colour extending down their 

 backs." 



Mr. J. Darling, Junior, tells me that he has found tlie nests of 

 this species in the Wyuaad and ou the Nilghiris from August to 

 November. 



Eggs of this species sent nie from the Nilghiris are long ovals, 

 pointed towards the small end, somewhat glossy, spotless, and of 

 a uniform, often very pale, cafe-au-lait colour. Both in colour and 

 size these eggs are intermediate between those of the Grey Partridge 

 and the Eock Bush-Quail. 



In length they vary from I'll to 1'35, and in breadth from 0'87 

 to 0-95 ; butthe average of thirty eggs isl-22 by 0-91. 



Coturnix commuiiis, Bonn. The Common Quail. 



Coturnix communis, Bonn., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 586 ; Hume, Mouyh 

 Draft N. 8f E. no. 829. 



The Common Quail has been found breeding in the Punjab, the 

 North- West Provinces, "Western Bengal, the Central Provinces, 

 and Satara, and more recently in Gilgit. 



The nest is, as a rule, merely a slight saucer-shaped depression 

 in the soil scratched by the birds, occasionally quite bare, generally 

 thinly, at times pretty thickly, lined with fine stems and blades of 

 grass. Ten eggs are the largest number that I know to have been 

 i'ound in India, and from several nests six and seven hard-set eggs 

 have been taken. They lay from the middle of March to May. 



I have only myself found a single nest of the Common Quail in 

 India, and that was in April (29th) in the north of the Putneah 

 District. The nest was a shallow saucer-like depression scratched 

 by the bird and liued with a few blades of dry grass. It was 

 placed in a tuft of grass and dwarf Zizyphus on a ridge separating 

 two millet-fields. The nest contained nine eggs absolutely in the 

 act of hatching off. We caught the female on the nest, examined 

 the eggs, found the point of the bills protruding in two, so put 

 them gently back, and put the mother gently on the top, where 

 she sat winking at us in a most unbecoming manner, but never 

 attempting to leave the nest. 



I have but little reliable information about the nidification of 

 this bird in India generally, but I believe that while the vast 

 majority of those myriads which so often throng in Northern 

 India our ripening wheat and barley fields in spring are true 

 migrants, a few birds remain throughout the year in most parts of 

 India, and breed with us as permanent residents. 



Writing from Lahore, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall remarked: — 

 " I found a Quail's nest, containing fresh eggs, on April 14th. 

 The nest was in the corner of a tobacco-field ; I saw the parent 



