Coturnix communis, Bonn.  
The Common Quail.

Cotumix communis, Bonn., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 586 ; Hume, Rough Draft N.  &  E. no. 829.

The Common Quail has been found breeding in the Punjab, the North-West Provinces, Western Bengal, the Central Provinces, and Satara, and more recently in Gilgit.

The nest is, as a rule, merely a slight saucer-shaped depression in the soil scratched by the birds, occasionally quite bare, generally thinly, at times pretty thickly, lined with fine stems and blades of grass. Ten eggs are the largest number that I know to have been found in India, and from several nests six and seven hard-set eggs have been taken.   They lay from the middle of March to May.

I have only myself found a single nest of the Common Quail in India, and that was in April (29th) in the north of the Purneah District. The nest was a shallow saucer-like depression scratched by the bird and lined with a few blades of dry grass. It was placed in a tuft of grass and dwarf Zizyphus on a ridge separating two millet-fields. The nest contained nine eggs absolutely in the act of hatching off. We caught the female on the nest, examined the eggs, found the point of the bills protruding in two, so put them gently back, and put the mother gently on the top, where she sat winking at us in a most unbecoming manner, but never attempting to leave the nest.

I have but little reliable information about the nidification of this bird in India generally, but I believe that while the vast majority of those myriads which so often throng in Northern India our ripening wheat and barley fields in spring are true migrants, a few birds remain throughout the year in most parts of India, and breed with us as permanent residents.

Writing from Lahore, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall remarked:-  "I found a Quail's nest, containing fresh eggs, on April 14th. The nest was in the corner of a tobacco-field ; I saw the parent bird. The nest was only a hollow scraped in the ground, at the root of a tobacco-plant, with a few bits of dry grass in it. The eggs were eight in number, and wore a dirty yellowish white covered with small and large dark umber-brown blotches. I believe this is the first instance of a nest of this bird being noted in the Punjab. I fully believe, could I have got a good searcher, I should have found several others.   This nest was half a mile from my house."

Mr. William Blewitt says; - "I only found one nest of this species, and that was in the Danah Beerh, near Hansi, on the 25th March. Under a wild plum or Zizyphus-bush a slight hollow had been scooped, and this had been lightly lined with leaves and straw.   It contained three fresh eggs."

Colonel G. F. L. Marshall remarks; - " On the 2oth March I obtained a nest; of the Common Quail, Coturnix communis, at Allahabad. It contained six eggs nearly ready for hatching, and was situated, as described by Dr. Jerdon, on a little tuft of grass in a field in the Ganges Kadir surrounded by a good deal of jungle."

" As far as my observations go, the breeding of these birds in the North-West Provinces is very unusual, and the fact may be worthy of record. The Quails were in abundance at the time and afforded excellent sport. Perhaps none of the keen sportsmen who were out after them realized that some at least of the birds were breeding. It may possibly turn out to be the case that their breeding here may be more general than is supposed, and that they come for this purpose and not solely on account of the attraction of the grain-fields."

The late Major Cock found these Quails breeding most abundantly about Nowshera in April 1872, and Colonel Biddulph tells us that in Gilgit they breed in May.

The eggs of this species sent me from various localities closely resemble, but are all somewhat smaller than, those that I have procured in England. In shape they are broad ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end. The ground-colour is a clear yellowish or reddish buff, and they are thickly speckled and freckled, or more thinly spotted or blotched, with deep reddish brown or at times bluish black. The markings vary much in character and in intensity ; some eggs are finely freckled and speckled all over, others have only a few large bold blotches accompanied by a few outlying spots and specks.   They are only moderately glossy.

In length they vary from 1.1 to 1.2, and in breadth from 0.83 to 0.95; but the average of twenty eggs is 1.18 by 0.89.