226 PHASIANHXE EXCALFACTORIA 



Genus IV. EXCALFACTORIA. 



Type. 

 Excalfactoria, Bp. Comptes Bend, xlii, p. 881 (1856) ... E. chinensis. 



This genus resembles Coturnix in most respects but differs in 

 having a much more rounded wing, the 1st primary being about 

 equal to the 6th and the difference between the length of the 

 primaries and secondaries about equal to half the length of the 

 middle toe ; the tail consists of eight very short feathers completely 

 hidden underneath the upper tail-coverts. 



Only three species are known ; two of these inhabit Southern 

 Asia from India to Australia and New Britain ; the third is confined 

 to Africa. 



662. Excalfactoria adansoni. Blue Quail. 



Coturnix adansonii, Verr., Rev. Mag. Zool. 1851, p. 515 ; Sharpe, ed. 

 Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 606 (1884). 



Excalfactoria adansoni, Grant, Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 255 (1893) ; id. Game 

 Birds i, p. 197 (1896) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 178 (1896) ; Woodward 

 Bros., Natal B. p. 164 (1899) ; Beiclienow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 509 (1902). 



Coturnix emini, BeicJienow, Journ. Ornitli, 1892, p. 18, pi. 1, fig. 3. 



Description. Adult Male. Crown, neck and back blackish- 

 brown washed with slate ; scapulars, wing-coverts and upper tail- 

 coverts chestnut with slaty-blue shaft stripes ; wing-quills greyish- 

 brown ; below chin and throat black, cheeks and lower throat white ; 

 chest and remainder of lower surface slaty-blue with a few patches 

 of chestnut on the flanks. 



Iris red ; bill black ; legs golden yellow. 



Length 5-2 ; wing 3'0 ; tail 1-12 ; culmen -3 ; tarsus -80. 



The female is brownish rufous above, the crown with scaly 

 marks of buff ; back varied with black, each plume with a central 

 streak of white ; underneath pale fulvous with scaly marks of dusky 

 fulvous. 



Iris reddish -brown ; bill greyish-black ; legs light yellow. 



Distribution. This little Quail has hitherto been found only in 

 West Africa from the Gold Coast to Gaboon, in Nyasaland and 

 within our limits in Natal and the eastern part of Cape Colony. 

 Here the only definite recorded localities are King William's Town 

 (Trevelyan) and Pinetown in Natal, March (Ayres). 



Habits. Mr. Hutchinson states that this little Quail is pretty 

 common in Natal though not appearing every season ; it frequents 



