200 TUE NICOBAR BUTTON QUAIL.
Nicobars, at least on Camorta Island, it is not uncommon, frequenting
the long grass, occasionally straying into gardens, &c.
I have never seen them En coveys, but have found them usually
in pairs, sometimes singly ; they arc difficult to get, as they will
not rise without being almost trodden on. When they do rise,
they only fly such a short distance that it would be impossible
to fire without blowing them to pieces, and then they drop
again into the long grass, from which it is almost impossible to
flush them a second time. I found them most numerous in the
large grassy tracts in the interior of Camorta."
Since then, though we have obtained many specimens, we
have learnt little more about the life history of the species.
O F THE nidification nothing is known, but the eggs will probably
prove to be barely separable from those of T.joudera,
though the plumage of the bird is different enough.
T H E FOLLOWING arc dimensions of a pair of apparently perfect
adults :—
Male.—Length, 6'0 ; expanse, 10*25 J wing1- 3'° I t a ! 1 f r o m v e n t»
1*25 ; tarsus, O'g ; bill from gape, 0'6$ ; weight, 1*4 ozs.
Female.—Length, 6'5 ; expanse, 105; wing, 3'12; tail from
vent, 1*4; tarsus, 09 ; bill from gape, 07 ; weight, 175 ozs.
In both the irides were white ; in the male the legs and feet
were yellow, tinged orange or chrome yellow ; the upper mandible
horny brown, yellowish at the gape ; the lower mandible
yellow, tipped horny. In the female the legs and feet were pale
yellow ; the entire bill yellow, the extreme tips only of the two
mandibles being brownish.
These were the only two specimens which we measured in the
flesh, but I find that the wings in dry skins vary in the males
from 295 to 3*1, and in females from 31 to 33.
T H E PLATE is a pretty picture, and fairly represents a pair (the
female on the left with its broad chestnut nuchal half-collar);
but the colours arc a little too bright, and the delicate markings
of the plumage have not been what I call thoroughly worked out,
and I think it best, the bird being so rare and little known, to
give an exact description of both sexes.
In the male the lores and a circle round the eye are pale
fulvous ; the point of the forehead and two broad stripes running
over the crown down to the nape are black, each feather
narrowly margined with bright chestnut. These stripes are
divided by a narrow line beginning opposite the centre of the
eyes, mingled fulvous white and very pale rufescent; the earcoverts
are fulvous tipped darker ; the sides of the neck, immediately
behind the ears, arc fulvous buff, spotted with black ;
below this, the sides and back of the neck, the interscapulary
THE NICOBAR BUTTON QUAIL. 201
region, and the scapulars arc bright chestnut, more or less
variegated with yellowish white and black.
The centre and lower portion of the back, rump, and upper
tail-coverts are black or blackish brown ; the feathers fringed
at the tips with bright rufous or chestnut, with one or more
freckled bars of the same colour towards the tips, and some of
the tail-coverts and some of the lateral feathers of the back
with yellowish white spots or streaks on the outer margin ;
the tail feathers, which are completely hidden by the upper tailcoverts,
are greyish brown, with obsolete blackish brown bars ;
the primaries, secondaries, and the greater coverts of the
former are very pale satin brown ; the outer web of the first
primary nearly white, and all the rest of the quills, which pale
towards their tips, excessively narrowly edged with pale fulvous ;
the tcrtiarics are more of a pinkish brown, mottled with
blackish brown towards their tips, and with a yellowish brown
spot there on the outer webs. Their coverts and most of the
secondary coverts, fawn coloured or pale buff, with blackish
brown, irregularly-shaped spots near the tips ; the chin and
the upper portion of the throat pure white ; the rest of the
throat and the middle of the breast light ferruginous; the
sides of the breast pale buff with regular, narrow, transverse
blackish brown bars. A few circular black spots on cither side
below where the barring ends. The central portion of the
abdomen white; the sides, vent feathers, tibial plumes, flanks,
and lower tail-coverts tinged buffy, the two latter most strongly
so ; some of the feathers of the sides of the upper abdomen
with broad subterminal blackish brown spots or imperfect bars.
In the female the black stripes on the head are edged with
white and not with chestnut, and the stripe dividing them is
white, the feathers with dark brown tips, thus giving the head
a totally different appearance. The back of the neck and
upper back are occupied by a broad, intensely-bright, chestnut
half-collar, entirely unmarked and unspotted, and nearly threequarters
of an inch broad ; the ear-coverts, sides of the head,
and a line under the eye are pale fulvous, dotted with black ;
the entire chin, throat, and upper breast arc bright ferruginous,
only the point of the chin paler; there is no barring on
the sides of the breast as in the male, only a few large blackishbrown
ovate spots, which continue downwards on the sides
and flanks ; a few similar but smaller spots adorn the middle
portion of the lower breast and upper abdomen. The rest of
the plumage is similar to that of the male, but there is a greyer
shade on the middle of the back, and the spots on the coverts
and tertials are larger and more numerous.
THERE ARE a vast number of species of Turnix belonging to at
least two different types. The first of these (the Bustard Quails)
is fairly represented by Turnix taigoor, and this type is separated