RED-CHESTED QUAIL. 237 



fringed with ashy-white at the ends, the inner ones barred with buffy-white, and 

 vermiculated and barred with black ; rump and upper tail -coverts rather darker 

 than the back, and regularly barred across with black and dull rufous, resembling 

 the scapulars ; tail-feathers ashy-brown, with indistinct blackish bars ; crown of 

 head dusky-brown, with cross-bars of black and a narrow line of white down the 

 middle of the head ; the hind -neck like the mantle, spotted with small white streaks, 

 edged with blackish ; on the sides of the neck, a slightly scaly appearance, the feathers 

 being white, barred with black ; lores, eyebrows, cheeks, and ear-coverts white, 

 minutely barred with black, the ear-coverts appearing as if streaked with white ; 

 entire throat and breast orange -chestnut, like the flanks and under tail-coverts ; 

 on the sides of the breast a patch of mottled grey, the feathers being grey, barred 

 with fulvous and black ; the abdomen whiter ; under wing-coverts very pale ashy- 

 grey, with a slight fulvous wash ; quills dull ashy below ; bill blue-grey ; the 

 culmen brown ; iris white ; feet fleshy-white. Total length 141 mm. ; culmen 15, 

 wing 81, tail 27, tarsus 17. 



Adult male. Smaller than the female, with the chin, upper throat and the whole 

 of the abdomen white ; the eyebrow and sides of face, as also the line of feathers 

 down the crown reddish-buff, and more uniform than the white, black-edged plumage 

 of these parts in the female ; the sides of the neck buffy-white, with dusky-brown 

 edges to the feathers, producing an escalloped appearance, which is continued down 

 the sides of the breast ; the lower throat and breast orange-chestnut, like the tail 

 and under tail-coverts ; the upper-surface of the body less distinctly streaked, 

 the white marigns of the scapulars, and inner secondaries being more isabelline or 

 rufescent. Total length 147 mm. ; culmen 13, wing 75, tail 31, tarsus 16. 



Nest. A slight depression in the ground, scantily lined with grasses, usually 

 protected by a grass tuft or sheltered in a grain crop. 



Eggs. Clutch, four ; ground-colour buinsh-white, spotted, but not so thickly as 

 Turnix velox, with slate-grey, chestnut, and dark brown ; surface dull ; axis 22 mm., 

 diameter 17.5. 



Breeding-season. September to December. 



Distribution and forms. Through tropical Australia, rarely occurring outside 

 save in northern New South Wales. Three subspecies have been named : Alpha- 

 turnia pyrrhothorax pyrrkothorax (Gould) from New South Wales and South Queens- 

 land and northern South Australia ; Alphaturnia pyrrhothorax herneyi (Mathews) 

 of much darker coloration above, especially on the mantle, which is dark ashy- 

 grey instead of fawnish, and much more rufous below from North-west Australia 

 and Northern Territory ; and Alphaturnia pyrrhothorax intermedia (Mathews) from 

 North Queensland, intermediate, lighter generally than the preceding, but darker 

 than the typical race. 



Genus COLCLOUGHIA. 



Cokloughia Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. II., pt. 5, p. 112, Sept. 24th, 1914. Type (by 

 original designation) : Hemipodius melanogaster Gould. 



Largest Turnices with long stout bills, short wings, medium tails and short legs 

 and feet. The bill is long and stout, but shaped more like that of Turnix than 

 that of Austroturnix, and stouter than that of Marianornis. The wing is like that 

 of Austroturnix, and the tail is similarly shaped and is about one-third the length 

 of the wing, sometimes a little more ; the legs are short and stout, the tarsus more 

 than half the length of the tail. 



Coloration : the female has developed a very distinct coloration quite unlike 

 any of the others, the black head and blackish abdomen being distinctive ; the 

 nestling shows the stout bill and legs and darkish abdomen. 



