ALLIED QUAIL. 233 



or fine leaves, and sheltered by a tussock, stone, etc. ; usually in an exposed dry 

 locality. 



Eggs. Clutch, four ; smooth and glossy, with a whitish ground -colour, minutely 

 freckled with blue and brown spots over the entire surface, as well as reddish-brown 

 spots more sparsely distributed ; axis 26-27 mm., diameter 21-22. 



Breeding -season. September to February. 



Incubation-period. Probably thirteen days. 



Distribution and forms. Throughout Australia and Tasmania. The subspecies 

 have not yet been accurately determined, though four races have been named, and 

 more are indicated. Gould named the specimens from the Houtman's Abrolhos 

 as a distinct species on account of their small size and paler coloration and brighter 

 markings, also noting that the West Australian birds were smaller than the typical 

 birds and the Tasmanian birds larger ; the birds from the Stirling Ranges were 

 distinguished by Mathews on account of their darker upper coloration but paler 

 under coloration, and the North Queensland form was also named for its smaller 

 size. Thus we have M. v. varius (Latham) from South Queensland, New South 

 Wales, South Australia and Tasmania (?) ; M. v. subminutus (Mathews) from North 

 Queensland ; M. v. stirlingi (Mathews) from the Stirling Ranges, West Australia ; 

 and M . v. scintillans (Gould) from Houtman's Abrolhos, and probably the mainland 

 adjacent of West Australia. 



Genus AUSTROTURNIX. 



Austroturnix Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. I., pt. 8, p. 195, March 20th, 1913. Type 

 (by original designation) : Hemipodius castanotus Gould. 



Large Turm'ces with stout " parrot-like " bills, short wings, longer tails and 

 short legs and feet. The bill is peculiarly stout, strongly laterally compressed, the 

 culmen ridge notably arched, the nasal groove short, the lower mandible with strong 

 deep perpendicular rami. 



The wing has the first four primaries subequal and longest and the secondaries 

 long, reaching to the tip of the primaries. The tail is less than half the length of the 

 primaries as in the preceding, but is about twice the length of the tarsus. The legs 

 are very similar to those of the preceding but are comparatively shorter. 



Coloration similar to the foregoing in general style but paler and less boldly 

 marked and the markings on the breast becoming obsolete, only a darker breast-band 

 remaining. 



158. Austroturnix olivii. ALLIED QUAIL. 



Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 1, pi. 17, Oct. 31st, 1910. 



Turnix olivii Robinson, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, Vol. X., p. XLIH., Feb. 28th, 1900 : Cook- 

 town, Queensland. 



DISTRIBUTION. Queensland (Cooktown). One specimen preserved in Tring Museum. 



Adult female (type of the species). General colour above, pale vinous-chestnut 

 with lavender-grey edges to the feathers of the upper-surface ; on the mantle and 

 back a certain number of feathers are crossed with black bars towards their ends and 

 broadly edged with ashy-white, forming streaks, which have a coterminal line of 

 black accompanying the white streaks on their inner side ; these banded and white- 

 streaked feathers being present among the scapulars but absent on the rump, upper 

 tail-coverts and tail which are pale cinnamon ; wing-coverts vinous -chestnut, 

 like the back and with the same ashy -grey edges to the feathers, which are differently 

 marked, being spotted with white on the inner median and greater coverts, these 

 white spots having a more or less distinct subterminal line of black ; lesser wing- 

 'coverts more dusky, having black centres to the feathers ; primary -coverts blackish, 



