RED-CHESTED QUAIL. 237 
fringed with ashy-white at the ends, the inner ones barred with buffy-white, and 
vermiculated and barred with black; rump and upper tail-coverts rather darker 
than the back, and regularly barred across with black and dull rufous, resembling 
the scapulars ; tail-feathers ashy-brown, with indistinct blackish bars ; crown of 
head dusky-brown, with cross-bars of black and a narrow line of white down the 
middle of the head ; the hind-neck like the mantle, spotted with small white streaks, 
edged with blackish ; on the sides of the neck, a slightly scaly appearance, the feathers 
being white, barred with black; lores, eyebrows, cheeks, and ear-coverts white, 
minutely barred with black, the ear-coverts appearing as if streaked with white ; 
entire throat and breast orange-chestnut, like the flanks and under tail-coverts ; 
on the sides of the breast a patch of mottled grey, the feathers being grey, barred 
with fulvous and black ; the abdomen whiter; under wing-coverts very pale ashy- 
grey, with a slight fulvous wash; quills dull ashy below; bill blue-grey; the 
culmen brown ; iris white ; feet fleshy-white. Total length 141 mm.; culmen 15, 
wing 81, tail 27, tarsus 17. 
Adult male —Smaller than the female, with the chin, upper throat and the whole 
of the abdomen white ; the eyebrow and sides of face, as also the line of feathers 
down the crown reddish-buff, and more uniform than the white, black-edged plumage 
of these parts in the female ; the sides of the neck buffy-white, with dusky-brown 
edges to the feathers, producing an escalloped appearance, which is continued down 
the sides of the breast ; the lower throat and breast orange-chestnut, like the tail 
and under tail-coverts ; the upper-surface of the body less distinctly streaked, 
the white marigns of the scapulars, and inner secondaries being more isabelline or 
rufescent. Total length 147 mm. ; culmen 13, wing 75, tail 31, tarsus 16. 
Nest.—A slight depression in the ground, scantily lined with grasses, usually 
protected by a grass tuft or sheltered in a grain crop. 
Eggs.—Clutch, four ; ground-colour buffish-white, spotted, but not so thickly as 
Turnix velox, with slate-grey, chestnut, and dark brown ; surface dull; axis 22 mm., 
diameter 17.5. 
Breeding-season.—September to December. 
Distribution and forms.—Through tropical Australia, rarely occurring outside 
save in northern New South Wales. Three subspecies have been named: Alpha- 
turnia pyrrhothorax pyrrhothorax (Gould) from New South Wales and South Queens- 
land and northern South Australia; Alphaturnia pyrrhothorax berneyi (Mathews) 
of much darker coloration above, especially on the mantle, which is dark ashy- 
grey instead of fawnish, and much more rufous below from North-west Australia 
and Northern Territory ; and Alphaturnia pyrrhothorax intermedia (Mathews) from 
North Queensland, intermediate, lighter generally than the preceding, but darker 
than the typical race. 
Genus COLCLOUGHIA. 
Colcloughia Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. II., pt. 5, p. 112, Sept. 24th, 1914. Type (by 
original designation): Hemipodius melanogaster Gould. 
Largest Turnices with long stout bills, short wings, medium tails and short legs 
and feet. The bill is long and stout, but shaped more like that of T’urnix than 
that of Austroturniz, and stouter than that of Marianornis. The wing is like that 
of Austroturnix, and the tail is similarly shaped and is about one-third the length 
of the wing, sometimes a little more ; the legs are short and stout, the tarsus more 
than half the length of the tail. 
Coloration : the female has developed a very distinct coloration quite unlike 
any of the others, the black head and blackish abdomen being distinctive ; the 
nestling shows the stout bill and legs and darkish abdomen. 
