172 PIlASIANlIi.K. 



in different seasons, throughout e\ery month of the year. Turnin"; up old volumes of " '1 he 

 Sydney Morning Herald," " Daily Telegraph," " The Australasian," and other newspapers in 

 the Sydney Public Library, 1 found precisely the same controversy was gomg on half a century 

 bad:. 



True sportsmen will, however, call off their dogs and desist from shooting at all times when 

 they find the birds are breeding, but the selfish pot-hunter shoots them whether the birds have 

 eggs or young or not. 



Undoubtedly there is a great demand for Stubble Ouail for table purposes during the close 

 season, and this demand was supplied by the bird-dealers of Sydney importing thousands of live 

 Ouail f Cotnniix lomminiis) from China a decade ago. Generally they were >ent in shallow native 

 made cages, barely giving the birds room to stand, consequently the mortality amongst them 

 during the voyage to Sydney was hea\y, and 1 have seen dozens of birds found dead on arrival 

 at their destination. In January, njii, I observed more humane treatment was given them, 

 their lofty cages being further protected by a covering of canvas about eight inches from the 

 roof of their cage. They are still occasionally imported, but not in the large numbers they were 

 ten or 111 teen years ago. 



The Stubble Quail is one of the finest game birds inhabiting Australia and Tasmania. To 

 the eastern and southern portions of the continent it is usually a late spring and early summer 

 visitant, arriving generally about the latter end of September, and departing after the breeding 

 season is over at the end of May. A few, however, remain thioughout the winter. It is nomadic 

 in habits, and may appear in a district iu hundreds one season, and then be absent again for 

 many years. Sportsmen are always willing to travel a good distance to get a day's shooting 

 amongst these birds, for where there is plenty of cover they lie well to a dog, and when flushed 

 fly straight and strong for usually seventy to eighty yards or more before dropping suddenly into 

 concealment again. Well grassed lands, open plains and cultivation paddocks are favourite 

 resorts of this species. Potato fields, which affords them an abundant supply of insects and other 

 food, and paddocks overrun with a dense growth of thistles, are also frequented, and on rare 

 occasions they may be found in swampy localities. 



The food of the Stubble Quail consists of grain and seeds, green grasses of various kinds, 

 and insects and their larva;. Mr. 11. S. E. Jeboult, of Waverley, near Sydney, informs me that 

 he has had an adult male in his aviary for over seven years; it is remaik'ably tame, and will 

 come and take seed out of his hand. 



The late Mr. Henry Newcombe, of Randwick, handed me the following note: — "In the 

 year 1851, at a place known as the ' Red Hill,' near Bunnerong Road, ran a small swamp down 

 to Botany Bay, now at times quite dry, where a sportsman could bag, with the aid of his dogs, 

 from thirty to forty brace of Stubble Quail (Coturnix pcctovalis ) on any day he choose to shoulder 

 his gun, besides other kinds of game. They remained in this locality all the summer, and on the 

 eastern side of the old Botany Road, leading to the Sir Joseph Banks Hotel ; the remnant of the 

 birds were to be found the following season scattered about on the low-lying country. They 

 were not known to the writer to have visited the metropolitan district before this date, nor 

 since have they been met with, but I believe an odd bird has been seen, and one shot near 

 Botany Heads many years age." Subsequently Mr. Newcombe brought me a line old adult 

 male he had shot at Randwick, on the 25th April, 1903. This is the only specimen I have seen 

 that was obtained in the metropolitan district for many years. 



From Melbourne, Victoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote me: — "If legislation, discussion, 

 newspaper correspondence and deputations to the IMinister who has charge of the administration 

 of the Game Act in N'ictoria are indications of the importance of a game bird, the Stubble (Hiail 

 (Coturnix pectoralis) certainly takes the palm. At the close of almost every year impatient 



