QUAILS PHEASANTS. 235 



which extends northwards to the Azores, and the Canary Islands; and in Japan, 

 Mongolia, and China, G. japonica replaces C. cotumix. The female of C. japonica 

 is bearded, which is a curious fact, when one remembers that a bearded 

 partridge of Siberia replaces our own western partridge (P. perdix). In 

 India, Africa, and Australia are peculiar species of the genus Coturnix, and 

 New Zealand formerly possessed a species of its own (C. novae, zealandm). 

 The New Zealand quail is now extinct, and specimens are valued at nearly 

 100, and yet fifty years ago it was so common that twenty brace in a day's 

 shooting was not considered a large bag ! If the sportsmen of those days 

 had known of the impending extinction of the species, and had preserved 

 the skins of the birds they shot for the table, a small fortune might have 

 been their lot. 



These small birds are peculiar to the Australian region, inhabiting 

 Australia, New Guinea, and the islands of Timor and Flores. They closely 

 resemble the true quails, and only differ in their short grey 

 axillaries. The eggs, however, are not so boldly marked as The Swamp and 

 in those of the quails, and are of a pale bluish white, with a Painted Quails, 

 number of light brown spots. The painted quails (Excal- 

 factorla) are birds of small size, but of many colours. They inhabit India, 

 the Indo-Chinese countries, and the entire Malayan Archipelago to Australia, 

 while one species, E. adansonij is found in Africa. 



Under this sub-family are also included the turkeys and the guinea-fowls, and 

 it contains the most widely distributed and the most highly decorated of the 

 Game-Birds. The bamboo-pheasants and the spur-fowl of the 

 Indian region have rather the aspect of partridges than true The Pheasants. 

 pheasants. Another intermediate form between the two Sub-Family 

 sub- families is seen in the blood-pheasants (Ithagenes) of the Phasianince. 

 Himalayas and the allied chains of mountains in North- 

 Western China. They are forest birds, living at a great altitude near the 

 snows, affecting the clumps of mountain-bamboo, and feeding at some seasons 

 on the tops of pine and juniper, when their flesh is somewhat rank to eat, 

 and at others on seeds and small fruits, when their flesh is quite palatable. 



These splendid birds, generally called " Argus " pheasants by Indian 

 sportsmen, on account of their white-spotted plumage, are found in the 

 Himalayas and the hills of Assam and South-Eastern China. 

 They are remarkable for the adornments of the males, which The Horned 

 have fleshy horns and a bare gular lappet of bright colours. Pheasants. 

 The latter is displayed during the breeding-season, but is Genus Trayopan. 

 scarcely distinguishable in the winter, when the birds aro 

 most easily observed, as they descend to the lower grounds and are often 

 snared by the natives. In summer they frequent the forests near the 

 snow-line. 



The moonals or impeyan pheasants are some of the handsomest of all 

 known birds, their plumage being metallic, and of divers colours of green, 

 purple, and blue, and they carry a crest of light spade-shaped 

 plumes or curled feathers. They inhabit the higher ranges The Moonals. 

 of the Himalayas and the mountains of Assam and Western Genus 



China, descending to lower elevations as the winter comes Lophophorus. 

 on. Mr. Hume, speaking of the common moonal, says : 

 " There are few sights more striking, where birds are concerned, than that 

 of a grand old cock shooting out horizontally from the hillside just below 

 one, glittering and flashing in the golden sunlight, a gigantic rainbow- 



