ALLIED QUAIL. 233 
or fine leaves, and sheltered by a tussock, stone, etc. ; usually in an exposed dry 
locality. 
Eggs.—Clutch, four ; smooth and glossy, with a whitish ground-colour, minutely 
freckled with blue and brown spots over the entire surface, as well as reddish-brown 
spots more sparsely distributed ; axis 26-27 mm., diameter 21-22. 
Breeding-season.—September to February. 
Incubation-period.—Probably thirteen days. 
Distribution and forms.—Throughout Australia and Tasmania. The subspecies 
have not yet been accurately determined, though four races have been named, and 
more are indicated. Gould named the specimens from the Houtman’s Abrolhos 
as a distinct species on account of their small size and paler coloration and brighter 
markings, also noting that the West Australian birds were smaller than the typical 
birds and the Tasmanian birds larger; the birds from the Stirling Ranges were 
distinguished by Mathews on account of their darker upper coloration but paler 
under coloration, and the North Queensland form was also named for its smaller 
size. Thus we have M. v. varius (Latham) from South Queensland, New South 
Wales, South Australia and Tasmania (?) ; I. v. subminutus (Mathews) from North 
Queensland ; WM. v. stirlingi (Mathews) from the Stirling Ranges, West Australia ; 
and M. v. scintillans (Gould) from Houtman’s Abrolhos, and probably the mainland 
adjacent of West Australia. 
Genus AUSTROTURNIX. 
Austroturnic Mathews, Austral Av. Ree., Vol. I., pt. 8, p. 195, March 20th, 1913. Type 
(by original designation): Hemipodius castanotus Gould. 
Large Turnices with stout “ parrot-like ” bills, short wings, longer tails and 
short legs and feet. The bill is peculiarly stout, strongly laterally compressed, the 
culmen ridge notably arched, the nasal groove short, the lower mandible with strong 
deep perpendicular rami. 
The wing has the first four primaries subequal and longest and the secondaries 
long, reaching to the tip of the primaries. The tail is less than half the length of the 
primaries as in the preceding, but is about twice the length of the tarsus. The legs 
are very similar to those of the preceding but are comparatively shorter. 
Coloration similar to the foregoing in general style but paler and less boldly 
marked and the markings on the breast becoming obsolete, only a darker breast-band 
remaining. 
158. Austroturnix olivii_-ALLIED QUAIL. 
Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 1, pl. 17, Oct. 31st, 1910. 
Turnix olivii Robinson, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, Vol. X., p. xm, Feb. 28th, 1900: Cook- 
town, Queensland. 
DIsTRIBUTION.—Queensland (Cooktown). One specimen preserved in Tring Museum. 
Adult female (type of the species).—General colour above, pale vinous-chestnut 
with lavender-grey edges to the feathers of the upper-surface ; on the mantle and 
back a certain number of feathers are crossed with black bars towards their ends and 
broadly edged with ashy-white, forming streaks, which have a coterminal line of 
black accompanying the white streaks on their inner side ; these banded and white- 
streaked feathers being present among the scapulars but absent on the rump, upper 
tail-coverts and tail which are pale cinnamon; wing-coverts vinous-chestnut, 
like the back and with the same ashy-grey edges to the feathers, which are differently 
marked, being spotted with white on the inner median and greater coverts, these 
white spots having a more or less distinct subterminal line of black ; lesser wing- 
coverts more dusky, having black centres to the feathers ; primary-coverts blackish, 
