196 ALLEN'S naturalist's LIBRARY. 



" They feed chiefly on grass-seeds ; very Httle, so far as my 

 experience goes, on either grain or insects, though they do un- 

 doubtedly eat both of these. But I have always found them 

 in meadows, where there was but little cultivation in the 

 neighbourhood, and, perhaps, when they occur where millet- 

 fields are common, they may, as I have been told, feed equally 

 on these small grains. . . . 



" This species is clearly monogamous. The hen sits (not 

 the male, as in the Bustard Quails), and the male is always to 

 be found near at hand ; and when the young are hatched both 

 parents accompany the brood for at least two months after they 

 are able to fly. 



" I have had reason to suspect that they may breed twice a 

 year, but the matter is still doubtful, as the different periods 

 at which we have found their nests may be due to differences 

 in the climate of the localities in which we met with them." 



Nest. — A mere depression in the ground, in a clump of coarse 

 grass, loosely lined with a few grass-stems. 



Eggs. — Five or six in number ; rather broad ovals and with 

 some gloss; olive-brown, more or less speckled with minute 

 reddish-brown or purplish-grey dots. Average measurements, 

 0-98 by 076 inch. 



SUB-SP. a. THE ISLAND PAINTED QUAIL. EXCALFACTORIA 

 LINEATA. 



La Petite Caille de Plsle de Lupn, Sonnerat, Voy. N. Guin. p. 



54, pi. 24 (1776). 

 Oriolus Hneatus, Scop. Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. ii. p. 87 



(1786). 

 Tetrao majiillensis, Gmel. S. N. i. pt. ii. p. 764 (1788). 

 Excalfactoria c/iinensis, A.uc\.or\im^ passim ; nee Linn. 

 Excalfactoria australis, Gould, Handb. B. Austr. ii. p. 197 



(1865). 

 Excalfactoria lineata, Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxu. p. 



253 (1893). 



