200 THE NICOBAR BUTTON QUAIL. 



Nicobars, at least on Camorta Island, it is not uncommon, fre- 

 quenting the long grass, occasionally straying into gardens, &c. 

 I have never seen them in coveys, but have found them usually 

 in pairs, sometimes singly ; they are difficult to get, as they will 

 not rise without being almost trodden on. When they do rise, 

 they only fly such a short distance that it would be impossible 

 to fire without blowing them to pieces, and then they drop 

 again into the long grass, from which it is almost impossible to 

 flush them a second time. I found them most numerous in the 

 large grassy tracts in the interior of Camorta." 



Since then, though we have obtained many specimens, we 

 have learnt little more about the life history of the species. 



Of the nidification nothing is known, but the eggs will pro- 

 bably prove to be barely separable from those of T.joudera> 

 though the plumage of the bird is different enough. 



The FOLLOWING are dimensions of a pair of apparently perfect 

 adults : — 



Male. — Length, &o ; expanse, 10*25 ; wing, 3*0 ; tail from vent, 

 1*25 ; tarsus, 0*9 ; bill from gape, 0*65 ; weight, 1*4 ozs. 



Female. — Length, 6*5; expanse, 105; wing, 3- 12; tail from 

 vent, 1*4 ; tarsus, O'Q ; bill from gape, 07 ; weight, 175 ozs. 



In both the irides were white ; in the male the legs and feet 

 were yellow, tinged orange or chrome yellow ; the upper man- 

 dible horny brown, yellowish at the gape ; the lower mandible 

 yellow, tipped horny. In the female the legs and feet were pale 

 yellow ; the entire bill yellow, the extreme tips only of the two 

 mandibles being brownish. 



These were the only two specimens which we measured in the 

 flesh, but I find that the wings in dry skins vary in the males 

 from 2*95 to 3*1, and in females from 3*1 to 3*3. 



The PLATE is a pretty picture, and fairly represents a pair (the 

 female on the left with its broad chestnut nuchal half-collar) ; 

 but the colours are a little too bright, and the delicate markings 

 of the plumage have not been what I call thoroughly worked out, 

 and I think it best, the bird being so rare and little known, to 

 give an exact description of both sexes. 



In the male the lores and a circle round the eye are pale 

 fulvous ; the point of the forehead and two broad stripes run- 

 ning over the crown down to the nape are black, each feather 

 narrowly margined with bright chestnut. These stripes are 

 divided by a narrow line beginning opposite the centre of the 

 eyes, mingled fulvous white and very pale rufescent ; the ear- 

 coverts are fulvous tipped darker ; the sides of the neck, imme- 

 diately behind the ears, are fulvous buff, spotted with black ; 

 below this, the sides and back of the neck, the interscapular 



