t88 THE INDIAN BUTTON-QUAIL.
I can only hope that all my readers will shoot and send me
specimens of any Button Quails they meet with.
JUDGING BY my own experience, I should say that the Indian
Button-Quail normally affected moderately high grass patches ;
by choice, patches in neglected gardens, groves, and other enclosures,
but also frequently grass patches in the midst of forests,
in scrub jungle, in fallow fields, or even on the margins of cultivated
ones. I have never met with it in open sandy places, nor
on low gravelly uplands, and I can scarcely ever remember
to have flushed it out of any growing crops, though I have found
it in thick grass growing along the edges of these.
Still, I have seen comparatively few, and have paid no special
attention to the subject ; and Colonel Tickell says "this is a solitary
bird, found scattered about here and there throughout Bengal
in open, sandy, bushy places in and about jungles or fields and
dry meadows in cultivated country ; frequently in low, gravelly
hills or uplands of 'khunkur' (nodular limestone), it is met
with on both sides of the Ganges, at least as high up as
Benares. "
Jerdon also tells us that—
"This species is found in open grassy glades in forests or
jungles, both on the plains and, more especially, in hilly
countries, and is also found in grass jungles throughout
Bengal, and the countries to the eastward ( ?). It is always seen
singly, in patches of long grass or thick cultivation, flying but
a short distance, and is very difficult to flush a second time."
Perhaps, therefore, the bird is not elsewhere so wedded to the
grass as I have always found it in the North-Western Provinces,
Oudh, and the Central Provinces.
It is, as both authors quoted truly say, a very solitary and,
I may add, (except possibly during the breeding season), a very
silent bird. You may flush several, though this is rare, out of a
small patch, say half an acre of grass; but I do not think I ever
put up more than one at a time, or that I ever heard one call, at
any rate to recognize its note.
Its flight is even feebler and shorter than that of the Bustard-
Quail ; it rises only when you are about to step on it, with
occasionally a low double chirp, barely audible to my ears.
When flushed, it rises with much less noise and whirr than do
the Bustard-Quails. It glides, bee-like, through the air for a few
paces, just skimming the waving tops of the grass, and drops
suddenly, as if paralysed, almost before you can bring your gun
to the shoulder.
Smart littie dogs will readily find it after it has thus dropped,
and as often as not (so pertinaciously does it cling to its hiding
place) will seize it on the ground, but with only beaters it is
almost useless trying to put up one of these Button-Quails a
second time.
THE INDIAN BUTTON-QUAIL. T89
Nor, except to ornithologists, is it worth while attempting to do
this. Tickell, no doubt, talking of this and the next species, tells
us that "the two species are so nearly alike as to be easily confounded
together, especially in the cold season, when they are
often put up out of stubble amongst real Quail, and occasionally
fall to the gun, though usually they are allowed, when flushed,
to pursue the even tenor of their way, accompanied by a parting
salutation of ' Oh, it's only a button !' Why the poor thing
should always be treated with such contempt is not easily
understood, for it is most delicious eating, and when in good
plight, as fat and delicate as an Ortolan ; but I dare say the
chick-a-biddy is glad enough to have an imprecation sent after
it instead of a charge of shot."
For my part (perhaps I never did get one " in good plight" ),
I have always found them, insignificant, dry, insipid little things,
not as good even as the Larks, Pippits and Wheatcars that everywhere
swarm in Upper India ; and while I deeply regret the bad
language which Col. Tickcll's friends thought it ncccssaiy to
use in regard to these, I quite endorse their refusal to waste
whole charges upon Button-Quail.
Like all the Quails, they may be occasionally seen at early
morn and eve feeding along the paths running through, or in
tiny open spaces in the midst of, the grass they live in. I have
never seen them in fields or stubbles, nor had any of the few
I have examined eaten any grain, only grass seeds and small
black fragments, which might have been portions of small hard
seeds or of tiny coleóptera.
I have observed nothing further about this species myself,
the fact being that to learn much about it one must watch it
carefully and patiently, which I have never done.
Captain Butler writes :—
" The Indian Button-Quail occurs all over the plains of
Northern Guzcrat wherever there is long grass and scrub jungle
intermixed. It is particularly plentiful in the neighbourhood
of Deesa, where I had every opportunity of watching it closely
and observing its habits. It is almost always found singly,
except in the breeding season, when it may often be seen in
pairs."
I KNOW positively nothing myself of the nidification of this species,
but I gather from what Captain Butler says that, amongst
the Button-Quails, the natural order of things is followed and
the female sits. He says :—•
" I found a nest near Deesa on the 15th July 1875
containing four slightly incubated eggs. It was composed of
soft blades of dry grass, reminding one of the nest of a field
mouse and many half-covered nests which I have seen of
Mirafra cantillans—the entrance hole being on one side and
extending nearly to the top of the nest. It was placed at the