on the genus Cotumix. 29


The eggs of C. delegorguei are not easy to distinguish from

those of the Rain-Quail, though, on the whole, the spots are

smaller and more numerous. The newly-hatched chicks are

slightly darker in colour than those of C. coromandelica but

otherwise similar.


The call-note of the Harlequin Quail is much like that of

the Rain-Quail but less loud and consisting of three notes

instead of two.



Cotumix pectoralis (fig. VI.). The Australian Stubble

Quail is very common in Eastern and South- Eastern Australia

and Tasmania. It is slightly larger than the other members of

this genus, with the exception of the extinct New Zealand Quail.

It is rarely imported alive into this country, and I can find no

published record of its having been bred here. A pair have

spent the past summer in my aviary, where the female has reared

a brood of seven.


In May the hen commenced to lay, the nest consisting of

a few pieces of dry hay beneath a thick clump of grass. Eleven

eggs were laid, but she made no attempt to sit, probably being

disturbed by the other quails in the same enclosure. On the 15th

of June I discovered another nest, carefully concealed beneath

thick grass, and on the 19th of that month she commenced to sit

on ten eggs. She sat beautifully and hatched off a brood of

seven on July 7th, incubation having been completed in eighteen

days. The chicks were exactly like young Rain-Quails except

for their slightly larger size. They were easily reared, though

one was found dead, with its skull broken, probably through

flying against the wire roof, when about three parts grown.


The young males commenced to show black streaks on the

breast when five weeks old, and were in adult plumage when

about eight weeks old.


The call-note of the male C. pectoralis during the breeding

season sounds like " chucaloi."



Cotumix novce-zealandice. The New Zealand Quail is not

shown on the plate, as there was no room for a seventh figure,

and a bird that is said by the best authorities to be extinct is of

little interest to aviculturists. It was slightly larger than C.



