120 BIRDS 



Agriculture to do so. Reports of its feeding habits have been received 

 from Australia, and are favourable 1 . 



Indian Quail (Coturnix coromandelica) 



The Otago Society had four of these birds at their Opoho hatchery 

 in 1907, but there is no record of where they came from, or what was 

 done with them. 



Little Australian Quail; New Holland Partridge (Turnix varid) 

 According to Hutton (1871) this species was introduced into 

 Auckland and Canterbury, but there is no other record of them. 



Egyptian Quail (species?) 



The Canterbury Society Report of 1883 states that: "the Egyptian 

 Quail, which were turned out on the Kinloch Estate, have likewise 

 been seen," but there is no previous reference to these birds. Colonel 

 Boscawen informs me (December, 1916) that his boys bought some 

 tiny Egyptian quail at 3^. a pair from a steamer at the wharf (Auck- 

 land). They were marked like guinea-fowl. "They got out, and may 

 have lived." This was before the war (1914). I do not know what 

 species is referred to. 



Black-breasted Quail (species ?) 



The Otago Society had two at Opoho in 1909, but again there is 

 no record of whence they came, and what happened to them. Again 

 I do not know what species this is. 



Common Partridge (Perdix cinered) 



The history of the numerous attempts to naturalise this bird in 

 New Zealand is almost pathetic. 



The Nelson Society introduced eight some time prior to September, 

 1864, but there is no record of what happened to them. 



1 In New South Wales this species eats seeds of grass and weeds, and occasionally 

 wheat; also occasionally seeds of Solatium nigrum, Phytolacca, buttercups and chick- 

 weed. Its animal diet consists of army-worms, beetles and plant bugs. 



The acting Chief Inspector of Fisheries and Game in Victoria says: "Their 

 food consists of weed-seeds and insects. One of their favourite foods in Southern 

 Victoria is the black seed of the spear grass, but dock-seeds, crickets and a species 

 of weevil have been found in them." The Superintendent of Experimental Work, 

 Department of Agriculture, Adelaide, says: "The Stubble Quail is common here 

 and is becoming increasingly so, but I have neither seen nor heard of damage being 

 done by them. They certainly eat grain, but do not appear to do so unless it falls 

 to the ground, and on the other hand they eat an enormous quantity of seeds of 

 the weeds that accompany the cereals. For instance a rather bad weed with us 

 some years is the rough poppy (Papaver hybridwri), and when this weed is bad in 

 any district the quail are plentiful, and I have seen young quail raised successfully 

 on the seed of this poppy alone." 



