GAME-BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



scuttling off into cover and hiding motionless at the least 

 noise. In colouring they reminded me of that pecuhar cater- 

 pillar found on hedges in spring ; I think it is the Gold-tail 

 Moth, but am not quite sure. 



The cock bird did the whole of the sitting ; the hen never 

 came near the nest, but went restlessly up and down the 

 aviary " booming " for another mate, and for some weeks 

 the whole garden resounded with the curious ventriloquial 

 note which sounded like " Ooop." One chick was acci- 

 dentally drowned, and the other was about haK grown on 

 October 27th. 



I then went down to Cape Town and, to my great annoy- 

 ance, when I returned ten days later I could find no trace 

 of the young Turnix. The cock, however, had made a new 

 nest close to the site of the old one, and was sitting on four 

 eggs, two of which he hatched on November 19th, when he 

 deserted the other two. 



I opened the latter and found them to contain dead 

 young just ready to come out. 



The cock bird was wonderfully tame, and would allow 

 himself to be picked up without struggling, and always brought 

 his young up to my hand, out of which he took meal-worms 

 and fed them. This simplified very much the rearing of these 

 tiny things. In this species, after the young are a week or 

 ten days old they are sometimes fed and brooded by the 

 female ; this I frequently saw her do. 



The two young referred to above turned out to be both 

 hens, and on December 17th their eyes had changed from 

 black to the pearl colour of the adult bird, which they 

 completely resembled in all respects. 



In the following March, 1908, I missed the cock Button- 

 Quail and suspected he was sitting, but the cover in their 



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