108 NATUEAL HISTOEY SKETCHES. 



fine brown mottled and barred plumage, like the gray- 

 hen at home. We had two varieties, the one much larger 

 and darker in colour than the other. The scrub quail 

 rises like the partridge, flies strong and quick, and is de- 

 cidedly the most sporting bird of the lot. It is nowhere 

 very common, always in cover or small scrub, in pairs or 

 families, and in hot weather they lie much on the edges 

 of the tea-tree by the creeks ; and here it is quick work 

 shooting them, for they invariably rise towards the scrub, 

 and are out of sight in an instant : three or four couple 

 of scrub quail in the day was good work in these parts. 

 Unlike the common quail, they appeared to remain with 

 us throughout the winter. The common quail lays from 

 six to eight largish eggs on the ground, very deeply 

 blotched with reddish brown at the large end : both the 

 scrub and painted quail lay fewer, the eggs of the former 

 being white, those of the painted quail light speckled. 



The Painted Quail, or Wanderer, is the handsomest 

 of the three, and, as its name imports, the plumage is 

 prettily variegated or painted with red, white, and black; 

 the legs are yellow, and it has but three toes. It is 

 intermediate in size between the two last, and the flesh 

 is whiter. Although you may occasionally kill an odd 

 one during the winter, the majority of them come in 

 September, and leave in March. The painted quail is 

 rarely found in the open, but generally in timber on 

 ferny or heathery rises. They run very much, have a pe- 

 culiar wavering flight ; and I consider the painted quail, 

 in timber, as difficult a bird to kill as any in the colony. 



