7^6 l\/ESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 

 572. TURNIX LEUCOGASTER, Nolth. 



WHITE-BELLIED QUAIL. 



Reference. — Ibis, 1895, p. 342. 



Previous Description of Eggs. — North : Report Horn Scientific 

 Expedition, p. 103 (1896). 



Geographical Distribution. — West, North-west and Centi-al Aus- 

 tralia. 



Nest. — Similar to that of T. velox. 



Eggs. — Number and description similar to those of T . rehir. 



Ohservations. — The small Wliite-bellicd Qviail was one of the orni- 

 thological discoveries of the Horn Expedition to Central AustraUa. 

 Mr. North, who described the new bird, considers it to be allied to 

 T . vehir and T . jji/rrliotliorar, but pointed out that the almost unifonn 

 wliite under-siu'face serves to distinguish it from either, likewise from 

 any member of the genus yet cUscovered in Australia. 



But it is somewhat strange that Mr. North should risk his repu- 

 tation as a cautious ornithologist in describing a new bird from a single 

 skin of such a wandering species as a Quail ! He now canchdly admits 

 that T. leucogaster " may prove to be only a very bleached young 

 bird " of T. velox, wlule other authorities have no doubt it is. Therefore 

 the following field notes of Mr. Kcartland, who accompanied the 

 Expedition (Horn's), may be read with interest as referable to either 

 variety : — " Great numbers of these birds were found throughout the 

 grass country north of Charlotte Waters. At Illamm-ta, on 30th May, 

 a clutch of hard-set eggs was found, and afterwards yoimg birds were 

 frequently picked up. At Petermann Creek, half-grown young ones 

 ran about oiu- camp. Wherever grass was plentiful, particularly near 

 Heavitree Gap and Missionary Plain, they were also numerous. Whilst 

 crossing the latter country, my attention was called to a dingo hunting 

 in the gi'ass Uke a setter dog. Presently he made a decided set, and 

 then suddenly springing forward, flushed a brace of these birds, one of 

 which he caught in liis mouth and soon swallowed. He tiien started 

 after the second one, and as he was approacliing his bird, hunting 

 keenly, he permitted me to get near enough to stop his Quail-hunting. 

 He was a fine male dingo, but black in colour." 



Again, with the Calvert Expedition, two years afterwards, 

 Mr. Kcartland writes : " Throughout the whole of the journey from 

 Cue to Derby these birds were noted. Whether we traversed the 

 dense kangaroo grass near the creeks, the scattered lierbage in the 

 timbered coimtry, or the arid spinifcx flats between the sandhills, they 

 rose beside our track nearly every day. In some places they were so 

 numerous that they were flushed every fifty yards. On one occasion, 

 soon after daybreak, I counted no less than fifteen birds all in sight 

 at ono time feeding on a patch of very short spinifex. Their eggs or 



