STUBBLE-QUAIL. 225 



coverts and axillaries white ; bill bluish-horn ; iris red-hazel ; feet yellowish. Total 

 length 191 mm. ; wing 110, culmen, from base of fore-head, 15, tail 32, tarsus 26. 



Adult female. Differs from the male in having less black above, the rufous much 

 paler and the grey more in evidence ; the throat white instead of rufous, the feathers 

 of the chest are less black, some of them margined with buff. Total length 180 mm. ; 

 wing 107, culmen 17, tarsus 26. 



Another female from Western Australia has the head almost entirely black with 

 the exception of the white eyebrow ; the back more rufous-brown with no appearance 

 of grey ; sides of face isabelline, becoming paler on the throat, but not white ; 

 feathers of the breast and abdomen fulvous with submarginal lines of black ; the long 

 feathers on the sides of the body and flanks with broad white shaft-streaks lined on. 

 each side with black and mottled with fulvous on the margins. 



Young male. Has the white streak of the adult just appearing on the middle 

 of the crown ; sides of the crown, chin and throat are covered with buff hair-like 

 feathers ; the feathers of the back and scapulars pale brown crossed by ferruginous 

 and black bars broadly lined with white ; the long inner secondaries and upper tail- 

 coverts with longitudinal lines of black next to the pale shaft-streak ; under-surface 

 buffy -white with twin black spots on each feather, the long flank feathers with 

 broad white shaft-streaks and three dark spots on each web. 



Nestling. Tawny and black above, these colours arranged in four lines, more 

 or less longitudinally, from head to tail ; under-surface fulvous. 



Nest. Upon the ground in crop or herbage, the nesting hollow, 4| inches across, 

 being lined with straw or grass as the case may be. 



Eggs. Clutch, about eight ; three eggs collected in Victoria are oval in shape, 

 with a slight gloss on the surface, and have the ground-colour buff, freckled and 

 blotched with reddish-brown over the entire surface ; axis 30 to 32 mm., diameter 

 21 to 22. 



Breeding-season. Usually September to January, but eggs have been taken 

 much later. 



Incubation-period. (In captivity) eighteen days. 



Distribution and forms. Restricted to extra -tropical Australia and Tasmania. 

 An eastern and a western form, the latter much darker above and below, especially 

 on the head and breast. The extinct Neozelanic bird, Coturnix novcezealandice, 

 Quoy and Gaimard, is very closely related, but may be considered specifically 

 distinct. 



Genus YPSILOPHORUS. 



Ypsilophorus Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. I., pt. 5, p. 127, Dec. 24th, 1912. New name 



for Synoicus Gould 1843, not Synoicum Phipps 1774. Type (by monotypy) : Perdix australis 



Latham. 



Synoicus Gould, Birds Austr., pt. xn. (Vol. V., pi. 89, text), Sept. 1st, 1843. Type (by mono- 



typy) : P. australis Lath. 



Not Synoicum Phipps, Voy. North Pole, App., p. 199, 1774. 



Small Galline birds with small bills, short rounded wings, very short tail and 

 stout legs and feet. 



The bill is similarly formed to that of the preceding genus but a little longer, 

 while the legs are also very similar to those of the last named but are a shade shorter, 

 so that they are correspondingly less when compared with the culmen length. 

 The wing is very different, being much rounded, the first four primaries being 

 subequal and longest and the fifth little shorter, while the secondaries are corre- 

 spondingly much longer, reaching to the tip of the seventh primary. The tail is 

 short and softer, being less than half the length of the wing and also having twelve 

 feathers. 



The coloration is different from that of the preceding, having streaks above 

 but with wavy bars below. 



Q 



