3i 3



on the Painted Quails.



brown. The throat is pale j^ellow, and the underparts yellowish.

It would naturally be supposed that the newly hatched chicks of

the Australasian form, differing so slightly when adult, from the

Asiatic birds, would be identical with the young of the latter,

but instead of being so they are absolutely distinct, being

almost entirely black (Fig. 2). On the head one can just trace

the buffish lines, which however are entirely absent on the back,

which is entirely blackish. The throat is yellow as in E.

chinensis , but the underparts are considerably darker than in

the typical form. *


The two forms interbreed perfectly freely, and the newly

hatched chicks, as might be supposed, are intermediate between

the two,—much darker than in E. chinensis , but showing faintly

the buffish stripes which are lacking in E. lineata (Fig. 3).

These hybrids, or mongrels, are perfectly fertile, which seems

to show that Mr. Ogilvie-Graut is right in calling E. lineata

merely a sub-species of the Asiatic form, though it is as distinct

from that form as, for example, is the Japanese Pheasant

(Phasianus versicolor) from the common Ring-necked birds

(P. torquahis). If only we could get living examples of

Excalfactoria adansoni and E. lepida we might be able to prove,

by crossing them with E. chinensis , whether they too would

produce fertile hybrids, or whether they are really good species.

It has been fairly proved in the case of the Pheasants that most

forms of Phasianus are merely local varieties or sub-species, and

this has been shown chiefly by crossing the different forms and

finding that the young are perfectly fertile however they are

crossed. It is reasonable to conjecture that the result of ex¬

periments in breeding Excalfactoria would show that the forms

which are now regarded as distinct species are merely local

races or sub-species.


When acclimatised, the Painted Quails are quite hardy

and need no artificial warmth during the winter, if kept in a dry,

sheltered aviary. To breed them successfully, I consider that a



* It is perhaps worth mentioning that the male E. lineata showed no parental

affection towards his chickens; whereas the males of the Eastern form always, as far

as I have been able to observe, brood their offspring to the same extent as the

females, each parent, as a rule, taking charge of about half of the brood.



