158 THE BLACK-BREASTED OR RAIN QUAIL. 



They are excessively prolific layers, and I suspect not un fre- 

 quently, when anything has happened to their own nests, lay in 

 any other nest that happens to come handy. 



The eggs vary in shape from rather broad ovals, obtuse at 

 both ends, only slightly compressed towards the smaller end, to 

 somewhat more lengthened forms, rather conspicuously pointed 

 towards this end. 



The shell is rather fine and smooth, with, in some cases, only 

 a very faint gloss, but usually a tolerable amount of " shine." 



The colouration is so variable that it is difficult to describe. 

 The ground varies from a faintly yellowish white, to rich caft 

 au lait colour, and in one clutch of nine eggs taken on the 25th 

 of September, possibly the second laying of an exhausted 

 bird, has a strong ferruginous tinge throughout, as of dried 

 blood. 



The markings are of three types, — (u/) fine specklings and 

 spottings thickly spread over the whole surface of the egg : 

 many eggs of this type strongly recall those of our several 

 species of Turnix ; {2nd) bold blotchings and frecklings : some 

 eggs of this type resemble much those of the Common Quail ; 

 (3rd) marblings, not unlike what are sometimes exhibited in the 

 eggs of Sand Grouse. This third type is perhaps the com- 

 monest. 



In colour the markings equally vary ; blackish, purplish, olive, 

 and burnt sienna brown, all occur ; but each egg exhibits only 

 one shade. With one exception, the ground also seems to be 

 always uniform, but in the speckly types, where the markings are 

 purplish brown, and the ground is pale, large patches of this are 

 suffused with a pinkish purple tinge. 



Typically the markings are closely set, but in some few 

 specimens this is not the case. How much these eggs vary may 

 be judged from the fact that, to convey anything like an ade- 

 quate idea of the series now before me, it would be necessary to 

 figure at least nine examples, and yet there is not one amongst 

 them that (now that I really know the egg) could be confound- 

 ed with that of any of our other birds. 



In length the eggs vary from 10 to 1*2 1, and in breadth from 

 0*8 to 0*89, but the average of fifty-six eggs that I have carefully 

 measured is 1*09 by rather more than 0*83. 



BOTH SEXES vary a good deal in size, but in a large series of 

 measurements I can detect no constant difference in this respect 

 between them, nor anything to lead me to suppose that, as in 

 the case of the Common Quail, the females average larger than 

 the males. 



Length, 6*5 to 7*25 ; expanse, 10*83 to 12*12; wing, 3*43 to 

 37; tail from vent, 12 to 1*56; tarsus, 0*9 to i*o; bill from 

 gape, 0*5 to 0'6 ; weight, 2'2 to 3*0 ozs. 



