Vv PHASIANIDAE 219 
and breast buff, the chest brown with chestnut and white 
blotches, the flanks spotted with black. & thoracica of South 
China and B&. sonorivox of Formosa have grey superciliary stripes, 
and the latter grey ear-coverts. The females only differ from 
the males in rarely possessing a pair of spurs. These species do 
not form coveys, but haunt long grass and bamboo-thickets on 
the hills, being difficult to put up, and uttering screaming 
noises ; they readily challenge their neighbours to fight, roost in 
trees, and lay from seven to twelve creamy-brown eggs under 
shelter of a tussock or bush, Ptilopachys fuscus of the northern 
Ethiopian Region has brown plumage with white margins, and 
vermiculations or darker barrmg in many parts, the mid-breast 
being buff and the naked orbits red. The sexes are similar. 
Small parties or pairs frequent rocky hill-sides up to nine thou- 
sand feet, and are very pugnacious; they carry the tail folded, as 
do domestic fowls, have a sharp call-note and lay whitish eggs. 
In L£xcalphatoria the short tail of eight soft feathers is 
entirely hidden by the coverts. #. sinensis, the Chinese or 
Painted Quail, the smallest of the Phasianidae, is brown above 
with black marking and rufous streaks, a bluish shade appearing 
in places, and chestnut patches shewing on the wing-coverts ; the 
throat and sides of the neck are black and white, the black 
forming a central patch below the chin; the remaining lower 
parts are slate-blue with a median chestnut patch on the breast. 
It is found from India and Ceylon to Formosa, and in Celebes ; 
a darker race occupying the Philippines, many of the Malay 
Islands, and Australia. £. lepida of New Britain, New Ireland, 
and the Duke of York Islands has no chestnut on the wing, and 
little below; £. adansoni, of Africa south of lat. 5° N., is 
slaty-brown above, and has chestnut scapulars, wing- and tail- 
coverts with grey shaft-stripes. The females have white throats 
and rufous breasts barred with black. The Australian form, or 
Least Swamp-Quail, abounds in marshes, the Indian frequents 
dry ground as well, the coveys being composed of single 
broods, which feed mainly upon seeds. The flight is very brief, 
the nest a mere pad of grass, on which lie five or six olive-drab 
egos, scantily spotted with purple or red-brown. Synoecus 
australis, the Swamp-Quail of Australia, Tasmania, and South- 
East New Guinea, is reddish-brown and grey above, with more 
or less distinct black mottlings; the throat is whitish, the under 
