Barred Buttonquail - Nesting

Nesting

Differs from true quails chiefly in the female being polyandrous. The female is the brighter of the sexes, initiates courtship and builds the ground nest. She fights with other females for the possession of a cock, uttering a loud drumming drr-r-r-r-r as a challenge to rival hens and also to announce herself to a cock. Eggs when laid are left to be incubated by the cock who also tends the young, which can run as soon as they are hatched. The hen goes off to acquire another husband, and perhaps yet another, and so on, evidently only one at a time.

• Season: practically throughout the year, varying locally.
• Nest - a grass-lined scrape or depression in scrub jungle or crops, often arched over by surrounding grass. Eggs - 3 or 4, greyish white profusely speckled with reddish brown or blackish purple.