Coturnix coromandelica (Gmel.).
The Black-breasted Quail.

Coturnix coromandelica (Gm.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 588; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 830.

As to the limits of the area within which the Black-breasted Quail breeds, I have, I regret to say, no very definite knowledge. In the Deccan, however, it breeds in multitudes, and it is to Mr. Henry Wenden and Mr. James Davidson (both stationed at Sholapoor during the last breeding-season) that I am indebted alike for the greater part of the information I possess as to its nidification and for a truly magnificent series of its eggs.

August and September are the months in which it lays in the Deccan, and nine appears to be the full complement of the eggs, though as few as four are occasionally found more or less incubated, and the bird clearly does not commence sitting until she has laid the whole clutch.

Mr. Wenden writes:- " It was on the 28th July, this year, that I received my first warning that it was time to discontinue shooting these birds. On that day many of those we shot had well-developed eggs in them. For a week or so before this the bird had been calling vigorously, evident signs of pairing.

" On the 4th August I found and took a nest with four eggs.
" On the  7th    ,,    „     one with six and another
with the same number.
" On the 12th    ,,    „     one with five.
" On the 14th    ,,    „     one with six, hard-set.
" On the 25th September „    ,,     one with nine, showing
signs of incubation.

" All the eggs I found were deposited in hollows in the ground (some of them like the imprint of a cow's foot, others so slight as to be almost unobservable), without any lining whatever. The Only case in which I noticed any pretence to a nest was on the 12th August, when I found five eggs in a cucumber-field. The bird had "scraped a hole in a mass of decayed leaves. I noticed many nests besides those which I took; they were all of the same type, most of them in jowaree or bajaree fields, some few in grass, most of them close under the plants, or a bush, some of them in the bare open.

" In every case where I had an opportunity of watching the nests, the eggs were laid daily.

" The birds sit very close when hatching. I have watched several, and on two occasions attempted to cover the sitting bird with my hat. I have never seen a male bird on the nest or near the hen, but from the persistent way in which the males call and the females answer, I concluded that the male never went far away from the nest. I consider that the breeding-time may be fixed as beginning on 1st August and ending on 15th October.

" I never myself found a nest containing more than nine eggs, but Mr. Davidson found two containing respectively eleven and eighteen eggs, the produce doubtless of two hens, because, though I saw SO many nests, I never found more than nine, though I always allowed at least two days to elapse after the last egg was laid before taking the nest.

" Four is the smallest number of incubated eggs observed."

Mr. Davidson remarks :- " The Rain-Quail breeds in great numbers round Sholapoor, and any number of eggs could be easily obtained there.

" I obtained various nests ; amongst others –
One brought to me on the 9th August contained five eggs.
One brought to me on the 12th August contained four.
One taken by myself on the 13th August contained six.
One brought in to me on the 18th August contained eight.

One taken by myself on the 18th August contained eleven. (All the eggs of all these nests were fresh.) " In the case of the last I shot the cock bird within ten yards of the nest, but he did not rise directly off them, as 1 was stooping to pick them up when he rose; the hen did not rise, though, on beating about with only two men, several birds of the same species were flushed within two hundred yards. The eggs in this last nest belong to such very different types, that I am almost sure they must have been laid by different hens. And I can only account for it on the supposition that in a place like this, where great numbers are breeding close together, two hens may (as I have often known Partridges and Pheasants to do) lay in the same nest. In this case there were nine of the darker type, and two of the lighter in the nest.

" One thing about these Quails I noticed was the enormous number of nests that are destroyed. I hardly ever walked out without discovering broken eggs lying about; but what animal was the culprit I never could be sure, though I suspect the Common Crow Pheasant and the large Lizard (Blood-sucker) are generally the offenders.

" The nests were of the most rudimentary description, a slight hollow with a few blades of grass or jowari laid in it formed the whole concern, and in one case even this was wanting and the eggs were laid in a hollow in the bare ground."

The first nests I obtained were two, on the 9th August, containing five and eight fresh eggs respectively.

" The last, also containing five fresh eggs, was obtained on the 2nd October, but this was probably owing to a former nest being destroyed."

Since the above was written I have found them breeding in the Deccan from the first week in August till late in November, and in the Panch Mahals in August.

"Dr. Jerdon states that " this Quail lays from six to eight eggs, generally of a creamy-pink colour with a few brownish spots, in a tuft of grass, in June and July."

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, this species arrives in Nepal about the end of April, when there is usually some rain, and not till after a shower or two. They breed there during May and June.

Colonel Butler writes:- "Belgaum, 28th August, a nest containing 8 incubated eggs ; on the 15th September, a nest with 11 eggs (fresh), probably (as they were of two different types) the produce of two hen birds. Two more nests same date, each containing 8 fresh eggs ; and numerous other nests on the 20lh, 21st, and 24th September, and all through October up to the 20th, containing fresh eggs."

Colonel Butler found this Quail breeding at Deesa in August and September.

The eggs of this species are excessively variable both in colour and size ; but 1 observe that all the eggs of one clutch are, in the vast majority of cases, not only similar in shape and type of coloration, hut also very uniform in size. So much so is this the case that I mixed up eight clutches (every egg dated), and then without once referring to the dates picked out each clutch merely by the look of the eggs without a single mistake. No doubt, iu some few clutches, one, two, or more eggs of a different type to that of the rest occur; these, I believe, have been laid by other birds and not by the hen to which the nest belongs. They are excessively prolific layers, and I suspect not infrequently, when anything has happened to their own nests, lay in any other nest that happens to come handy.

The eggs vary in shape from rather broad ovals, obtuse at both ends, only slightly compressed towards the smaller end, to somewhat more lengthened forms, rather conspicuously pointed towards the latter.

The shed is rather fine and smooth, with, in some cases, only a very faint gloss, but usually a tolerable amount of " shine."

The coloration is so variable that it is difficult to describe. The ground varies from a faintly yellowish white to rich cafe-au-lait colour, and in one clutch of nine eggs, taken on the 25th of September, possibly the second or third laying of an exhausted bird, has a strong ferruginous tinge throughout, as of dried blood.

The markings are of three types; - (1st) Fine specklings and spottings thickly spread over the whole surface of the egg ; many eggs of this type strongly recall those of our several species of Turnix. (2nd) Bold blotchings and frecklings; some eggs of this type resemble much those of the Common Quail. (3rd) Marblings, not unlike what are sometimes exhibited in the eggs of Sand-Grouse.

In colour the markings equally vary - blackish, purplish, olive, and burnt-sienna browns, all occur; but each egg exhibits only one shade. With one exception the ground also seems to be always uniform, but in the speckly types, where the markings are purplish brown, and the ground is pale, large patches of this are suffused with a pinkish-purple tinge.

Typically the markings are closely set, but in some few specimens this is not the case. How much these eggs vary may be judged from the fact that to convey anything like an adequate idea of the series now before me, it would be necessary to figure at least nine examples, and yet there is not one amongst them that (now that I really know the egg) could be confounded with that of any of our other birds.

In length the eggs vary from 1.0 to 1.21, and in breadth from 0.8 to 0.89 ; but the average of fifty-six eggs that I have carefully measured is 1.09 by rather more than 0.83.