334 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



Genus EXCALFACTORIA, Bonap. 



688. EXCALFACTORIA CHINENSIS. 

 THE BLUE-BREASTED QUAIL. 



Tetrao chinensis, Linn, Syst. Nat. i. p. 277. Excalfactoria chinensis, Jerd. 

 B. Ind. ii. p. 591 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 553 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 311 ; 

 Oates, S. F. iii. p. 345 ; Wald. Trans. Zool Soc. ix. p. 224 j Bl. B. Burm. p. 151; 

 David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 397 ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi. p. 447 ; Hume, S. F. 

 viii. p. Ill ; Oates, S. F. viii. p. 167 ; Hume <Sf Marsh. Game Birds, ii. p. 161, 

 pi. ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 196 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 23(3. Coturnix chinensis, 

 Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 755. 



Description. Male. Upper plumage, wing-coverts and tertiaries olive- 

 brown, marked with black and pale rufous, and most of the feathers with 

 pale shaft-streaks ; primaries and secondaries plain brown ; chin, throat 

 and cheeks black ; a broad moustachial stripe from the gape white ; a 

 broad collar below the black of the throat white, succeeded by a narrow 

 band of black ; a narrow white line from the nostrils to the eye ; forehead, 

 feathers round the eye, ear-coverts, breast, sides of the neck and of the 

 body slaty blue ; abdomen, vent and tail chestnut. 



The female has the upper plumage similar to the male ; the chin and 

 throat are white ; a distinct large supercilium and a band from the gape 

 down the cheeks, expanding and surrounding the throat, rufous ; sides of 

 the head pale rufous speckled with black ; lower plumage pale buff, all but 

 the centre of the abdomen barred with black. 



Iris red ; bill bluish black, lighter at the gape ; eyelids plumbeous ; legs 

 bright yellow ; claws horn-colour. 



Length 5*7 inches, tail 1, wing 2*8, tarsus -8, bill from gape *5. The 

 female is of about the same size as the male ; but both sexes vary much 

 in size. 



The Blue-breasted Quail is generally distributed over Burmah, but is 

 nowhere apparently very common, except in Southern Pegu, at which part 

 of the Province it arrives in May in large numbers. Some birds may pos- 

 sibly stay in the country all the year round. 



It is found over many portions of Eastern India and Ceylon, Bengal, 

 Assam, Southern China, Cochin China, the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, 

 Java and Borneo ; in a modified form it appears to extend to Celebes, the 

 Philippine Islands, New Guinea and Australia. 



This lovely little Quail is very abundant from May to August and Sep- 

 tember in the lower and more swampy portions of Pegu, such as the plains 

 between the Pegu and the Sittang rivers. I do not remember to have ever 

 shot it in the dry weather. It arrives in May ; and at the first it may be 



