PULICAKI^ 241 



Length 5-0 (6-0 in flesh) ; wing 29 : tail 10 ; culmen 40 ; 

 tarsus '85. 



The female is a little larger and somewhat more brightly 

 coloured. Wing 3'2. 



In the young bird the buff on the breast is not nearly so marked, 

 and the transverse bars extend entirely across. 



Distribution. — This little Button Quail was first discovered by 

 Wahlberg, in "Lower Caffraria" {i.e., Natal), and was apparently 

 lost sight of until recently, wben Mr. Grant brought it into notice 

 again. It has hitherto been obtained only at Pinetown in Natal, 

 in March by Shelley, and in December by Stark, and at King 

 William's Town (Bt. Mus.) ; outside our limits it has been met with 

 in Nyasaland. 



Habits. — Dr. Stark found two nests of this species near Pine- 

 town, in Natal, on December 22Qd and 23rd. In both cases the 

 nest consisted merely of a slight hollow about three inches across, 

 and about three-quarters of an inch deep in the sandy soil, lined 

 with a few fine grass stalks. The nest was slightly sheltered in the 

 one case by a broad-leaved plant, in the other by a tuft of grass, 

 and in both cases the situation was a rough sandy piece of ground, 

 with scanty herbage, near a little stream. 



The eggs, which are now in the South African Museum, were, in 

 both cases, three in number, and in one case had been incubated ; 

 they are very pale greenish-white, very thickly covered with small 

 spots and blotches of a yellowish and a darker shade of brown. In 

 shape they are nearly even ovals ; they measure -95 to -90 x -76 

 to -75. 



Order XIV. FULICARIiE. 



The Eails and the Fintoots constituting this Order are marsh 

 or water birds of skulking habits, running through and hiding in 

 the grass and reeds. The lower portion of the tibia is bare of 

 feathers, all the toes are long and slender and the hind toe is jointed 

 at a higher level than the others ; the young are hatched covered 

 with down and can run and swim almost at once. 



The skull is schizognathous and holorhinal, and the basipterygoid 

 processes are absent ; the sternum has only one notch on each side 

 posteriorly ; there are two carotids ; the caeca are long and the oil- 



16 VOL. IV. 



