Excalfactoria chinensis (Linn.). 
The Blue-breasted Quail.

Excalfactoria chinensis (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 591; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 831.

In the Sub-Himalayan districts and ranges this Quail lays from the latter end of June till at least the second week in August. In Cachar, Mr. J. Inglis tells me that it lays in June and July. In the Malay Peninsula Davison took the eggs in March. The nest, always on the ground, usually in the midst of low short grass, though always close to thicker cover, is a mere depression in the sod, more or less thinly lined with blades and fine stems of grass. Six appears to be the usual complement of eggs, but in two cases only five and four eggs respectively were found, a good deal incubated.

Captain Hutton tells me that it breeds in the lower warmer valleys below Mussoorie in June and July, not commonly or regularly but occasionally, and to him I owe a single egg taken in July from a nest in one of the lower warmer valleys running into  the Dhoon.

Dr. Jerdon says :- " In Purneah in the month of July it was the only Quail I observed. It breeds in this month, the eggs being pale olive-green."

In the Colombo district of Ceylon, according to Colonel Legge, this Quail breeds in May.

Mr. Oates writes from Pegu ; - "A nest found on the 14th July was a mere pad of grass, placed in a clump of coarse grass. It contained five fresh eggs. They are slightly glossy and rather rounded. The ground-colour is olive-brown, and the shell is speckled with a few minute reddish-brown spots. They measure from 1.0 to .95 in length, by .77 to .7 in breadth."

The eggs are broad ovals, as a rule decidedly pointed at one end, and usually of a more or less pale, slightly olivaceous, drab or cafe-au-lait with a faint olive tinge. Generally they exhibit some minute specks and spots, varying in colour from purplish grey to an obscure reddish brown. In some clutches these markings are excessively minute and sparse: occasionally they are almost entirely wanting, while most commonly they are pretty thickly set, with here and there a spot a fiftieth of an inch in diameter.

The eggs are always rather dull, and, though the shell is moderately fine and smooth, never seem to have more than a faint gloss.

They vary from 0.95 to 1.04 in length, and from 0.7 to 0.81 in breadth ; but the average of a considerable series is 0.98 by 0.76.