NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 727 



the body imtil the bkd could hide an ordinary tea saucer. xUthough 

 the male bii-d parsed most of the time beside his mate, I do not think 

 he took any part in the work of incubation, as he never stayed at the 

 nest when the female was away. Early on 3rd Februaiy I saw broken 

 egg-shells near the nest, and two small chocolate-coloured heads pro- 

 truding from under the wings of the female ; but the male was 

 perched on the Pan-ot's log, about four feet high. Next morning five 

 chicks were seen following the mother, but the male kept out of the 

 way, preferring the company of the Parrots to that of his wife and 

 family. Unfortunately some of the chicks got into the water dish, 

 and one was di-owned, but the other four are thriving well, and have 

 now wing feathers over an inch long. The male bird is now in constant 

 attendance on them, and when finely-chopped meat or gi-een vegetables 

 are tlirown to them he picks up pieces and holds them in liis bill until 

 the young ones take them from him. Tliey all scratch hke common 

 fowls, and are fed principally on canary seed. When I was removing 

 the two imhatched eggs with a spoon tied on a stick, the hen bird 

 charged at it, with her feathers all distended, like a bantam fowl would 

 at a strange dog." 



The breeding season of the common Brown Quail is chiefly summer 

 time. Mr. North cites an instance of eggs in the Dobroyde collection 

 which were taken as late as the 20th March (1867), no doubt a second 

 brood. 



It has been ascertained that in Quail's eggs hatched under a 

 domestic hen the incubation lasts from fourteen to twenty-one days. 

 Probably if hatched under the proper parent, the term would be the 

 longer period. 



564. — Syncecus diemenensis, Gould. — (488) 



GREATER BROWN QUAIL. 



Figure. — Gould. Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v., pi. 90. 



Reference. — Same. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia (1848) , 

 also Handbook, vol. ii., p. 194 (1865) ; Campbell : Southern 

 Science Record (1883) ; North : Austn. Mus. Cat., p. 290 

 (1889), also Trans. Roy. See, South Australia, vol. xxii., 

 p. 164 (1898). 



Geographical Distribution. — New South Wales (?), Victoria and 

 Tasmania. 



Nest. — A hollow, lined with grass, &c., in the groimd, in thick herbage 

 or beside a grass tussock, usually in marshy localities. 



Effgs. — Clutch, seven to thirteen ; romid oval in shape ; texture of 

 shell somewhat coarse ; siu-face glossy ; colour, dull or greenish-yellow 

 spotted with olive-green. The eggs of the Tasmanian Brown Quail are 



