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Quails. 
ounces. It owes its name to the fact that it migrates at the com- 
mencement, in India, of the rainy season, although it is found in 
some parts of that country all the year round. Its eggs, from 
eight to nine in number, are smaller than those of C. coiniiiuiiis, 
and are very varied in colour, but this is usually buff or whitish, 
blotched or speckled with black, olive or purplish spots. 
The Greater Button Quail was first bred by Mr. D. 
Seth Smith in 1903, and a very full account, with an excellent 
coloured plate appeared in the Avicidtural Magazine, Vol i, 
N.S. These Httle Hemipodes are quite the most interesting of 
the quail family. With them the position of the sexes is reversed. 
The hens are altogether larger and handsomer than the cocks, 
which poor hen-pecked creatures have to do the whole of the 
incubating and family raising. The hen in the meantime wanders 
off and looks for another husband, and when she has found him 
lays him a clutch of four or five eggs and then starts husband 
hunting again, and so on ad infinitum. Another curious habit 
noticed by Mr. Seth Smith was the way in which the hen calls 
the cock, when she has found a tit-bit. Of her young ones she 
takes no notice, unless it is to kill off a troop when she feels in 
an evil temper. The eggs are creamy-white, speckled with buff 
or grey spots. The incubation period is very short, being about 
half the time of the little Painted Quails. The young are in 
adult plumage in about seven weeks. 
The Little Button Quail, by far the smallest member of 
the family, appears not to have bred in this country, although in 
at least one instance eggs have been laid in a cage. Very few 
have found their way into our aviaries, but I do not think that 
it would be difficult to breed them. The Zoo have had them on 
two or three occasions. Their four or five dirty white eggs are 
thickly peppered with brown. 
The Bustard Quail. This, the commonest of the Indian 
hemipodes, is somewhat smaller than the Common Quail and 
like the latter, is a great fighter. T have not heard of its having 
attempted to breed here. I saw some very tame specimens at 
the Zoo in. I think, 191 3. The eggs, usually four in number, are 
large for the size of the bird, and glossy white, peppered all over 
with brown and blotched at the larger end. 
I 
