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Mr. D. Seth-Smith,



where a coloured illustration of it is given. The plate does not

do justice to the subject, but conveys a fair idea of the birds.


The Australian Painted Quail, E. lineata , inhabits Aus¬

tralia, the Philippines, Borneo, Java and Sumatra. It is slightly

smaller than E. chinensis , and darker in colour.


The New Britain Painted Quail may be distinguished from

either of the above by the absence of chestnut on the wing-

coverts, and by the underparts being almost entirely slaty-blue.

It inhabits New Britain, New Ireland, and the Duke of York

group.


Adanson’s Painted Quail, E. adansoni , inhabits the greater

part of Africa, and differs but slightly in plumage from the

others.


It is with the common species, E. chinensis , and the dark

form from Australasia, E. lineata , that I have had some ex¬

perience in captivity, and to which I shall chiefly confine my

remarks. I do not believe that living examples of either of the

other two forms have reached this country ; and I think that the

three examples—one male and two females—of E. lineata, that

I received from Australia in 1900, were the first, and perhaps the

only specimens ever imported.


Mr. Ogilvie-Grant considers E. lineata to be merely a

sub-species of E. chi?iensis; and probably he is right, though

observation of the two forms in captivity shows them to differ

considerably in some of their ways. The point which I think is

worth especial notice in this connection is the difference which

exists in the colour of the newly-hatched young of E. chinensis and

E. Ibieata, and one of my chief objects in writing this paper is

to call attention to this point, which I believe was never noticed

by ornithologists until I called attention to it at a meeting of

the British Ornithologists’ Club in June 1903.


The young of the typical E. chinensis (Fig. 1) are like the

young of the Common Quail, only much smaller. The pre¬

dominating colour is very dark brown. On the back are two very

distinct stripes of sand}'- buff, running from the nape to the tail.

The head is sandy buff, with two distinct stripes of very dark



