Turnix dussumieri, Temm.
The Little Button-Quail.
Turnix sykesii, A. Smith, Jerd. B. Ind. ii,p. 000.
Turnix dussumieri, Temm., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 835.
I never succeeded in finding a nest of the Lesser Button-Quail. I have never found the bird common anywhere. Mr. W. Blewitt found a nest near Hansi in the Dhana Beerh on the 16th April. It was a mere depression, scratched in the ground, at the base of, and completely overhung 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 accident or had been placed there by the bird.
The nest contained only two fresh eggs.
At Sholapoor, in the Deccan, Mr. J. Davidson found a nest containing four hard-set eggs on thel7th of August, which, though he failed to secure the parent bird, undoubtedly belonged to this species. The nest was placed in a field of low bajra, and was formed in a hollow on the ground (such a hollow as would be caused by the imprint of a cow's foot), which was wed lined with fine grass.
Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of the nidification of this species in the neighbourhood of Find Dadan Khan and Khatas in the Salt Range ; - " Lay in the third week of August. Eggs, five. Shape, round pyriform. Colour, pale grey, 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 the bajra."
Colonel Butler found a nest of this bird near Deesa on the 29th July, with four fresh eggs, and he caught chickens of this species which must have been hatched at the commencement of June.
Captain Horace Terry writes from Madras ; - -"Quads of several sorts were very numerous in the neighbourhood of Bangalore during the cold weather and I found several nests, and among others those of T. dussumieri in November 1883. The nests, if nests they can he called, were pads of fine grass, and not much of that very often, were much the same as any other Quail's, and the eggs had very much the appearance of those of T. taigoor, but of course far .smaller. Four was the largest number of eggs I ever got in one nest."
The eggs of this species are very similar to, but much smaller than, those of T. taigoor; they are even smaller (markedly narrower) than those of T. tanki.
They are moderately broad ovals, much pointed towards one end, and very fairly glossy. They have a pale yellowish stone-coloured ground, minutely freckled all over with specks of yellowish and greyish brown, overlaid with somewhat larger streaks, spots, and mottlings of dark earthy brown, varying in shade in different eggs, and often much more dense towards the large end, where in some they form a sort of mottled irregular cap. Small spots or clouds of pale inky purple are usually scattered amidst the other markings.
The eggs that I have seen have only varied from 0.81 to 0.89 in length, and from 0.63 to 0.68 in breadth.
The Little Button-Quail.
Turnix sykesii, A. Smith, Jerd. B. Ind. ii,p. 000.
Turnix dussumieri, Temm., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 835.
I never succeeded in finding a nest of the Lesser Button-Quail. I have never found the bird common anywhere. Mr. W. Blewitt found a nest near Hansi in the Dhana Beerh on the 16th April. It was a mere depression, scratched in the ground, at the base of, and completely overhung 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 accident or had been placed there by the bird.
The nest contained only two fresh eggs.
At Sholapoor, in the Deccan, Mr. J. Davidson found a nest containing four hard-set eggs on thel7th of August, which, though he failed to secure the parent bird, undoubtedly belonged to this species. The nest was placed in a field of low bajra, and was formed in a hollow on the ground (such a hollow as would be caused by the imprint of a cow's foot), which was wed lined with fine grass.
Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of the nidification of this species in the neighbourhood of Find Dadan Khan and Khatas in the Salt Range ; - " Lay in the third week of August. Eggs, five. Shape, round pyriform. Colour, pale grey, 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 the bajra."
Colonel Butler found a nest of this bird near Deesa on the 29th July, with four fresh eggs, and he caught chickens of this species which must have been hatched at the commencement of June.
Captain Horace Terry writes from Madras ; - -"Quads of several sorts were very numerous in the neighbourhood of Bangalore during the cold weather and I found several nests, and among others those of T. dussumieri in November 1883. The nests, if nests they can he called, were pads of fine grass, and not much of that very often, were much the same as any other Quail's, and the eggs had very much the appearance of those of T. taigoor, but of course far .smaller. Four was the largest number of eggs I ever got in one nest."
The eggs of this species are very similar to, but much smaller than, those of T. taigoor; they are even smaller (markedly narrower) than those of T. tanki.
They are moderately broad ovals, much pointed towards one end, and very fairly glossy. They have a pale yellowish stone-coloured ground, minutely freckled all over with specks of yellowish and greyish brown, overlaid with somewhat larger streaks, spots, and mottlings of dark earthy brown, varying in shade in different eggs, and often much more dense towards the large end, where in some they form a sort of mottled irregular cap. Small spots or clouds of pale inky purple are usually scattered amidst the other markings.
The eggs that I have seen have only varied from 0.81 to 0.89 in length, and from 0.63 to 0.68 in breadth.
