188 



TUKNIClIJjE. 



rv^ 



BLACll BHKASTKIl TUKNIX. 



HE Black-breasted TurniN, or "Black-fronted ( Juail "— a name applicable to the adult 

 female only— inhabits tlie coastal and contiguous districts of South-eastern Queensland, 



from Broad Sound to, at one time, as far 

 south as the neighbourhood of Brisbane, 

 where tiie late Mr. J. A. Thorpe and the 

 late Mr. Kendal Broadbent informed me 

 it was not uncommon in the scrubs west 

 of that city between iSho and 1870. Like 

 many other species, once common near the 

 capitals of other Australian States, it has not 

 been seen for a number of years. At the 

 present time it does not occur in any part of 

 New South Wales. There is a fine series 

 of these handsome birds in the Australian 

 Museum Collection, obtained near Rock- 

 hampton and at Pine Mountain in May, 1S65, 

 by the late Mr. tieorge Masters, Curator of 

 the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney, and at Wide Bay in October and November, 

 1867. There is also a young male procured by the late Mr. George fSarnard at Coomooboolaroo, 

 Duaringa, on the Dawson River, in 1883. 



Gould, in his folio edition of the "Birds of .Australia,"" figures only the adult female. 

 I regret that I am unable to give the colours of the soft parts, my descriptions being tak'en from 

 dried skins in the collection obtained over a quarter of a century a,i;o. The present figure 

 represents an adult female. 



From Queensland Mr. H. G. Barnard sent me the following note: — ".At one time Ttirnix 

 welaiwgnstcy was fairly common in the scrubs on the Dawson River, and traces of the where- 

 abouts of these birds were easily seen from the scratching aiming the fallen leaves. The nest, 

 which consists of a hole scooped under a low bush or tussock of coarse grass, and lined with 

 bits of grass, was hard to lind, and it was only by the bird fiushing from under ones feet that 

 it was procured at all. The eggs, four in number for a sitting, were heavily marked with 

 blotches of dark brown or black. The nests were found in 1883 and 1884, none having been 

 taken since ; they were probably obtained during February or !\Iarch, as it is only at this time 

 of the year the different species of Quail and Turnices breed in the I^awson River District. Of 

 late years the birds have completely disappeared." 



The eggs are three or four in number for a sitting, rounded-oval in form, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and the surface lustrous. They are of a pale buffy-white ground colour, 

 minutely and thickly freckled or stippled all o\er with light vinous-brown, with which are 

 unevenly intermingled, but particularly on the larger end, conspicuous irregular-shaped spots 

 and small blotches of chestnut-brown, purplish-grey and inky-black, with a few similar under- 

 lying markings of faint lilac-grey. An egg in the .Australian Museum Collection, taken by the 

 late Mr. George Masters, is more thickly blotched than usual with black on the larger end. 

 Length it8 x 0-9 inches. Two eggs of a set of three, received in November, 18S4, from the 

 late Mr. George Barnard, of Coomooboolaroo, Duaringa, Queensland, measure : — Length (.A) 

 !•! X oSj inches; (B) i-i8 x 0^92 inches. 



Immature males may be distinguished by being smaller and ha\ing the chin and throat 

 white, more chestnut on the feathers on the fore-neck and breast, and by the large whity-brown 

 tips to those on the centre of the lower breast. AA'ing 3'7 inches. 



• Bds. Austr , fol. Vol. V., pi. Si (1S48). 



