ig6 THE LITTLE BUTTON QUAIL. 



one of its young ones, it is sure to commence making this pe- 

 culiar noise." 



Mr. J. Davidson, C.S., remarks : — 



"Except amongst the native fowlers {Pkansi pardis), I have 

 noticed that natives always consider this species to be the young 

 of one of the bigger Quails. 



" I have never found it very common or in any great num- 

 bers in any one spot, but neither has it been rare in any district 

 in which I have been stationed. 



" In the Sholapur district it was always to be found in the 

 grass reserves and amongst the grain fields, and it was by no 

 means rare either in the Panch Mahals or in Tumkur, Mysore, 

 though very difficult to flush." 



THE LITTLE Button Quail is I believe, as I have already 

 noted, to a considerable extent migratory, visiting and breeding 

 in the Himalayas and other parts of Northern and Western 

 India, where it is not seen except during the breeding season. 



This species lays from April to October, according to season 

 and locality, making its nest on the ground in some standing 

 crop or patch of grass ; a slight depression in the soil, artificial 

 or natural, and thinly or thickly lined with grass. Occasionally 

 I have heard of partially or wholly domed or covered-in nests 

 being found. 



Four appears to be the usual number of eggs laid, but five 

 and even six are said to have been found. 



Mr. W. Blewitt found a nest near Hansi in the Dhana Beerh 

 (or grass reserve) on the 16th April. It was a mere depression 

 scratched in the ground, at the base of, and completely over- 

 hung and concealed by, a dense tuft of soft grass, and very 

 slightly lined with a few blades of the same grass, so few that 

 it was impossible to say whether they had fallen there by acci- 

 dent or had been placed there by the bird. 



The nest contained only two fresh eggs. 



Mr. W. Theobald, narrating his experiences of the nidifica- 

 tion of this species in the Salt Range (Punjab), remarks that 

 they " lay in the third week of August. Eggs, five. Shape, round 

 pyriform. Colour, pale gray, closely freckled with dirty yellowish 

 ochre, with a few dots of neutral, and blotched with deep reddish 

 brown or blackish umber. Nest, a little grass, hemp, yarn, and 

 a few hairs on the ground in a field of bajra." 



Mr. J. Davidson says : " I think, on the whole, that the Little 

 Button is rather a late breeder. In Sholapur I got, or had 

 brought to me, four nests, one on the 17th of August and the 

 others at the very end of September, and I shot a hen in 

 October 1878 containing an unshelled egg. 



" In the Panch Mahals I shot a bird containing a perfect 

 very highly coloured egg late in October, but the cook unfortu- 



