coTUJijrix. 445 



Mr. ITeury Wenden and Mr. James Davidson (both stationed at 

 Sholapoor during the last breeding-season) that I am indebted 

 alike for the greater part of the information I possess as to its 

 nidification and for a truly magnificent series of its eggs. 



August and September are the months in which it lays in the 

 Deccan, and nine appears to be the full complement of the eggs, 

 though as few as four are occasionally found more or less incubated, 

 and the bird clearly does not commence sitting until she has laid 

 the whole clutch. 



Mr. Wenden writes : — " It was ou the 28th July, this year, that 

 I received my first warning that it was time to discontinue shooting 

 these birds. On that day many of those we shot had well- 

 developed eggs in them. For a week or so before this tlie bird 

 had been calling vigorously, evident signs of pairing. 



" On the 4th August 1 found and took a nest with four eggs. 



" On the 7th „ ,, one with six and another 



with the same number. 



" On the 12th „ „ one with five. 



" On the 14th ,, „ one with six, hard-set. 



" On the 25th September „ „ one with nine, showing 



signs of incubation. 



" All the eggs T found were deposited in hollows in the ground 

 (some of them lilie the imprint of a cow's foot, others so slight as 

 to be almost unobservable), without any lining v^hatever. The 

 only case in w hich I noticed any pretence to a nest was on the 

 12th August, when I found five eggs in a cucumber-field. The 

 bird had scraped a hole in a mass of decayed leaves. I noticed 

 many nests besides those which I took ; they were all of the same 

 type, most of them in jowaree or bajaree fields, some few in grass, 

 most of them close under the plants, or a bush, some of them in 

 the bare open. 



" In every ease where I had an opportunity ot watching the 

 nests, the eggs were laid daily. 



" The birds sit very close when hatching. I have watched 

 several, and on two occasiDns attempted to cover the sitting bird 

 with my hat. I have never seen a male bird on the nest or near 

 the hen, but from the persistent way in which the males call and 

 the females answer, I concluded that the male never went far 

 away from the nest. I consider that the breeding-time may be 

 fixed as beginning on 1st August and ending on 15th October. 



" I never myself found a nest containing more than nine eggs, 

 but Mr. Davidson found two containing respectively eleven and 

 eighteen eggs, the produce doubtless of two hens, because, though 

 I saw so many nests, I never found more than nine, though 1 

 always allowed at least two days to elapse after the last egg was 

 laid before taking the nest. 



" Four is the smallest number of incubated eggs observed." 



Mr. Davidson remarks: — "The Eain-Quail breeds in great 

 numbers round Sholapoor, and any number of eggs could be easily 

 obtained there. 



