ISO FflASIANID.K. 



the female is very piif;iiacious, and bristles up her feathers like a bantam hen on the approach 

 of any other bird, which she attaclsS with marked ferocity. When the younf; are about fourteen 

 days old the male takes sole charge of them, whilst the female wanders by herself until the 

 seventeenth or ei^'hteenth day, when she starts layin'^' again. When a month old the young 

 ones weigh about two and a half ounces, and can fly well. At six week's they are as large as 

 the parents, but vary slightly in plumage, being most like the female, but with the black spots 

 much smaller than on the mother. At three months they all assume adult plumage. I have 

 ascertained the above facts by rearing several broods in captivity. < 'ne lien bird laid four 

 clutches of 12, 13, 13 and 12 eggs in the season, extending from ( )ctober to the end of March. 

 I was unable to find any specific difference between the birds I sh'it in Central and North- 

 western Australia and those I obtained near Mel bourne." 



Mr. Tom Carter wrote as follows from l:)ri)ome Hill, South-western Australia: — "The 

 Brown Ouail (Syiiacns anstvalis) was not uncommon in the thick growth of grass that is to be 

 found in the beds of the smaller creeks of the north-west in good seasons, but as the grass dries 

 up and blows away, the birds go too. Fresh eggs were noted on the coast at Point Cloates, 

 where they breed in wet seasons, about the middle of September, and young birds, strong on the 

 wing, were shot on my inland run nn November 4th, iqoo. They are fairly plentiful on the 

 scrubby coast hills about Albany in the summer months." 



From notes made by Lh'. Lonsdale Holden, while resident at Circular Head, on the north- 

 west coast of Tasmania, I have extracted the following ; — " On the 25th October, 1886, 1 flushed 

 many pairs of Syiiariis niistralis, and although these birds had been paired for some weeks past, 

 I found no nests. They have a breeding call of two syllables, the first short, the second \ ery 

 long, very low, and finely drawn out. I attempt to write it thus — ' fu-wee-e-e-e-e-e-e.' I never 

 heard this in the shooting season, when their ordinary cry is a sort of sharp chirp. I was for 

 some time unable to disco\er which bird pronounced the long drawn and rather sweetly pitched 

 note. On the 17th November, 1886, I flushed two Quail at the neck of Circular Head Peninsula, 

 and a chick a few days old ran away, which we chased and caught, but ccnild find no nest. I 

 have flushed innumerable brace of these Quail, close under my feet, since spring, but this is the 

 first time I have found proof of their breeding. On the lotli January, 1SS7, [ found two broods 

 of young chicks a few days old. Four days later I saw coveys in the ram paddock, with half 

 grown birds well able to fly. In September, 1888, I saw several pairs during the month, and 

 heard their breeding call." 



The nest is a slight grass-lined depression in the ground, sheltered above by a tuft of grass 

 or a low herbaceous plant, or is placed in cultivation paddock's. The eg>^s are usually seven to 

 twehe in number for a sitting, although Gould records from ten to eighteen, but I feel sure the 

 latter is the result of two birds laying in the same nest. They are swollen ovals in form, rather 

 pointed at the smaller end, and occasionally specimens are found somewhat flattened at the 

 larger end, or of a blunted peg-top form, the shell being comparatively close-grained, thick, and 

 slightly lustrous. They vary in ground colour from a pale bluish-white to a dull yellowish- 

 white, which is finely and thickly freckled or dusted all over with very minute markings of pale 

 brown. In some the freckles are almost invisible, in others the ground colour appears to be 

 slightly stained with pale brown, while others are entirely devoid of markings. .\ set of seven 

 taken on the i8th September, 1901, by Mr. George Savidge, at Copinanhurst, on the Upper 

 Clarence River, New South Wales, measures: — Length (A) i-o8 x 0-87 inches; (B) i-i x 

 o'88 inches; (C) 1-17 x 0-93 inches; (D) i-o6 x 0-9 inches; (E) rii x 0-91 inches; (F) i-o8 

 X 0'9 inches; (G) i'o8 x 0-9 inches. 



September and the four following months constitute the normal breeding season in Eastern 

 .Australia, but nests with eggs or young are common again in March, April and May, and Mr. 

 Savidge has taken many sets of eggs in January and February. Mr. J. A. Boyd took eggs 

 on the point of hatching on the 6th May, also an incomplete set of fresh eggs on the same day. 



