120 THE ROCK BUSH-QUAIL. 



practice. I remember once firing nearly fifty shots within an 

 hour at Rock Bush-Quails. I decline to state how many I 

 killed on that occasion. I had no dogs ; my beaters said I did 

 not hit the birds. I said they were fools and could not find the 

 birds when I shot them ; but on another occasion, with dogs, I 

 actually bagged 22J brace between 3 P.M, and dusk. 



As Jerdon says, they make a very good pie, if you proceed 

 as follows : — 



First get one to two pounds of the best beef-steak ; then 

 take twelve of the Bush-Quail nicely plucked and cleaned ; cram 

 a dessert spoonful of pati de foie gras inside each bird, and wrap 

 each up in a thin slice of bacon ; add a small tin of trufles, 

 half a bottle of button mushrooms, six hard-boiled eggs, each 

 cut in half, condiments, sauces, &c», selon le gotit, and fill in with 

 rich stock (a couple of hares boiled down with a shin bone do 

 famously) ; then, if your cook makes good crust and the pie is 

 baked slowly and properly, you will find, as Jerdon says, that 

 Bush-Quail are very good in a pie. 



The Rock Bush-Quail lays at any time from August to 

 December, and again in March, and, for all I know, may lay at 

 other times also ; but I have myself taken nests in all the 

 months mentioned. I think they have two broods in the year, 

 but cannot be certain ; anyhow, March and September are the 

 months in which I have found most eggs. 



They always prefer semi- waste strips of land, covered with 

 high grass and in the neighbourhood of cultivation, for nesting. 

 The nest is slight, composed of grass loosely wound round into 

 a circular shape, and is placed generally, but not always, in a 

 depression, scratched for it by the birds, at the foot of some 

 tuft of grass or under some thick bush. 



Six or seven is the usual number of eggs laid. I have never 

 seen, though I have heard of, more in a nest. 



Writing from Jhansi, Mr. F. R. Blewitt says : — " The Bush- 

 Quail, I do not know which, but I send you both birds and 

 eggs'" (and the birds were the Rock Bush-Quail), "breeds in 

 August and September. The nest is merely an excavated cavity, 

 of from five to six inches broad, at the base of a thick patch of 

 grass and quite under it. A few pieces of grass are laid at the 

 bottom of the nest. The female sits very close on the eggs, 

 and I have stood a yard from the nest without her attempting 

 to rise ; only when I have brought my hand near to her has she 

 flown off. Six appears to be the regular number of eggs, though 

 probably this may sometimes extend to seven or eight." 



till night, and never feel it ; whereas, all of us who are not exceptionally robust 

 know that firing more than from 80 to 1 00 full charges brings on a headache. The 

 report is so much reduced in intensity that, unless they are quite close, firing at one 

 bird does not frighten away others. 



