SYN03CUS. EXCALFACTORIA. 



47 



Gould, Handb. B. Austr. ii. p. 193 (1865) ; Campbell, Nests fy Eggs 



- - - ; No - 



(1889). 



Austr. Birds, p. 51 (1883) ; North, Nests $Egc/s Austr. Birds, p. 289 



Syncecus australis, Grant, Cat. Birds B. M. xxii. p. 247 (1893) ; Sharpe, 

 Hand-l. i. p. 31 (1899). 



The eggs of the Australian Swamp-Quail vary much in size and 

 colour, and no two clutches resemble each other. They are nor- 

 mally broad ovals, with one end much pointed. Some are white, 

 occasionally marked with a few very tiny dark scattered dots; 

 others are creamy white, some thickly, some sparingly, freckled and 

 occasionally blotched with pale grey ; others again are a dull pale 

 stone-colour or greenish white, much speckled with rufous or brown. 

 A specimen from Tasmania is of this latter character, being of a pale 

 stone-colour with very numerous dots all over the shell, but it is 

 fully twice the size of any other egg of this species in the Collec- 

 tion. The following are the average dimensions of the eggs of this 

 bird from various localities : 



Port Essington 

 Moreton Bay . 

 Tasmania. . 



Australia (Copt. Stanley). 



Australia. 



Australia. 



Baudin Island, N.W. Australia, July. 



New South Wales. 



Port Essington. 



Port Essington. 



Moreton Bay. 



Tasmania. 



1-15 by -9 

 1-3 by -95 

 1-45 by 1-05. 



Voy. H.M.S. ' Rattlesnake.' 



Gould Coll. 



Gould Coll. 



Lieut. G. Oliver [P.]. 



Gould Coll. 



Gould Coll. 



Gould Coll. 



Gould Coll. 



Gould Coll. 



Syncecus raalteni (Mull, fy Sclileg.). 

 (Plate IV. fig. 1.) 



Synoecus raalteni, Grant, Cat. Birds B. M. xxii. p. 249 (1893) : Sharpe. 

 Hand-l. i. p. 31 (1899). 



The eggs of Raalten's Swamp-Quail are broad ovals, pointed at 

 one end and approaching the pyriform. The ground-colour is of a 

 pale cream- or stone-colour, and this is thickly sprinkled over with 

 minute pale rufous dots and specks, very evenly distributed over 

 the shell. The four specimens in the Collection measure respec- 

 tively : 1-08 by -9 ; 1-1 by -89 ; 1-07 by -89 ; 1-1 by -87. 



4. Alor Island, Moluccas, 18th April. A. H. Everett, Esq. [P.]. 



Genus EXCALFACTORIA, Bp. 

 Excalfactoria chinensis (Linn.). 



Excalfactoria chinensis, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1863, p. 398; Hume $ Marsh. 

 Game Birds 2nd. ii. p. 161 (1879) ; iii. App. pi. iii. (1880) ; Gates ed. 

 Hume, Nests fy Eggs Ind. B. iii. p. 448 (1890) ; Grant, Cat. Birds 

 B. M. xxii. p. 250 (1893) : Oates, Game Birds Ind. i. p. 95 (1898) ; 

 Sharpe, Hand-l. i. p. 32 (1899). 



