190 THE INDIAN BUTTON-QUAIL. 



foot of a tussock of coarse grass in a preserve, and the old bird 

 allowed me to put my foot within a few inches of her before 

 she flew off. After leaving the nest she fluttered along the 

 ground for four or five yards, and then feigned lameness, broken 

 wings, &c, like other members of the family. I snared her at 

 the nest when she returned shortly afterwards. 



" The eggs are very handsome and considerably smaller than 

 those of the Indian Bustard-Quail. They are of a dirty yellow- 

 ish white colour, thickly speckled, spotted and blotched all over 

 with brownish black, with occasional spots and markings of 

 inky purple and palish or dingy yellow, the whole combining 

 in forming quite a dark confluent cap at the large end. The 

 eggs are very broad and almost round at the large end, very 

 small and pointed at the other, and the shell is highly 

 glossed." 



One of these eggs measured 0*84 by 0*63. 



Captain Oldham, of the 12th Regiment, K. G., sent me an 

 egg with the following note : — 



" I took the egg from the body of a Larger Button-Quail. 

 This Quail I shot with others on the 26th of this month 

 (August) near this station (Sialkot) in fields of Indian-corn 

 and cotton. As Jerdon says he knows nothing of the breeding 

 of this species, you may perhaps care to have the egg. The 

 other Quails shot were the Rain-Quail and the Lesser Button- 

 Quail, but the Larger Button-Quail predominated. There were 

 evidently several pairs/' 



This egg is of the ordinary Turnix type. In shape it is a 

 very broad oval, but pointed towards one end ; in fact, more 

 than half the egg is spherical, the remaining portion is, as 

 it were, pinched out into a point, and this is not an uncommon 

 shape amongst the eggs of this genus. The shell is glossless. 

 The ground colour is a dull white, very minutely speckled all 

 over with pale yellowish brown and inky purple. The markings 

 are most dense at the more obtuse end of the egg, where they 

 are intermingled with a few small inky grey clouds. Another 

 egg of this species, received from Mr. Blewitt of Raipur, 

 together with the parent bird, but unfortunately without parti- 

 culars, is similar in size and shape, and in the general charac- 

 ter of its markings, but has a slight gloss ; the ground colour 

 is yellowish stone colour, the markings are brighter-coloured, 

 and the inky clouds and spots darker and more numerous. 



These two eggs measure — the first 0*88 by 077, and the 

 second 0*85 by 073. 



I HAVE no detailed measurements of females, which are larger 

 than the males. Three males varied as follows : — 



Length, 5*87 to 6*12 ; expanse, IO'O to iro; wing, 3*0 to 

 3*15 ; tail from vent, 1*12 to 1*5 ; tarsus, 0"8 ; bill from gape, 

 0*62 to 0*69 ; weight, V2 to 1*5 oz. 



