Vol. xiii.] 72 



size. In March the breeding-plumage was gradually assumed 

 again, and at the same time the two females began to get 

 savage and had to be separated, one being left with the male 

 in a large aviary in which an even temperature of about 

 60° Fahr. was maintained. On April 25th I discovered one 

 egg in a slight nest of hay close to the door. On the 27th 

 a second egg was laid, and a third on the following day. 

 The male then took possession of the nest (April 28th) and 

 commenced to sit steadily, the female from this time taking 

 no further notice of the nest, but going about, apparently in 

 search of another husband. 



" On May 10th all three eggs hatched, about ten days 

 before they were expected, incubation having lasted twelve 

 days only, which is very remarkable considering that the 

 young, when hatched, are as well developed and clothed with 

 down as any of the young of the true Quails. I may remark 

 that the young of Ewcalfactoria chinensis, which are of much 

 the same size, and certainly more fully-developed at birth, 

 take 21 days to hatch. 



" On account of the very cold weather it was almost im- 

 possible to provide a sufficient quantity of insect-food, and 

 artificial food they would not touch, so that unfortunately two 

 of the chicks died ; and I have much pleasure in exhibiting 

 them here to-night. The third is alive and doing well. At 

 ten days old, it is nearly fully feathered and can fly. 



" I have also brought up for exhibition a mounted chick of 

 Excalfactoria chinensis only four days old, and one of the 

 Australian form, E. line at a, of about the same age, in order to 

 show the extent to which the young of these two forms differ 

 in colour, the young of the typical E. chinensis having very 

 distinct buff lines down the back, these lines being absent in 

 the Australian form, the chick being almost entirely black." 



Mr. E. Lort Phillips exhibited a remarkably beautiful 

 cinnamon variety of a Woodcock (Scolopax rusticula) which 

 had been shot at Milford, Co. Donegal, Ireland, on the 

 19th January, 1903. This specimen had been presented to 

 the British Museum. 



