PHASIANIDAE 219 



and breast buff, the chest brown with chestnut and white 

 blotches, the flanks spotted with black. R thoracica of South 

 China and B. sonorivox of Formosa have grey superciliary stripes, 

 and the latter grey ear-coverts. The females only differ from 

 the males in rarely possessing a pair of spurs. These species do 

 not form coveys, but haunt long grass and bamboo-thickets on 

 the hills, being difficult to put up, and uttering screaming 

 noises ; they readily challenge their neighbours to fight, roost in 

 trees, and lay from seven to twelve creamy-brown eggs under 

 shelter of a tussock or bush, Ptilopachys fuscus of the northern 

 Ethiopian Eegion has brown plumage with white margins, and 

 vermiculations or darker barring in many parts, the mid-breast 

 being buff and the naked orbits red. The sexes are similar. 

 Small parties or pairs frequent rocky hill-sides up to nine thou- 

 sand feet, and are very pugnacious ; they carry the tail folded, as 

 do domestic fowls, have a sharp call-note and lay whitish eggs. 



In Excalphatoria the short tail of eight soft feathers is 

 entirely hidden by the coverts. E. sinensis, the Chinese or 

 Painted Quail, the smallest of the Phasianidae, is brown above 

 with black marking and rufous streaks, a bluish shade appearing 

 in places, and chestnut patches shewing on the wing-coverts ; the 

 throat and sides of the neck are black and white, the black 

 forming a central patch below the chin ; the remaining lower 

 parts are slate-blue with a median chestnut patch on the breast. 

 It is found from India and Ceylon to Formosa, and in Celebes ; 

 a darker race occupying the Philippines, many of the Malay 

 Islands, and Australia. E. lepicla of New Britain, ISTew Ireland, 

 and the Dvike of York Islands has no chestnut on the wing, and 

 little below ; E. adansoni, of Africa south of, lat. 5° jST., is 

 slaty-brown above, and has chestnut scapulars, wing- and tail- 

 coverts with grey shaft-stripes. The females have white throats 

 and rufous breasts barred with black. The Australian form, or 

 Least Swamp -Quail, abounds in marshes, the Indian frequents 

 dry ground as well, the coveys being composed of single 

 broods, which feed mainly upon seeds. The flight is very brief, 

 the nest a mere pad of grass, on which lie five or six olive-drab 

 eggs, scantily spotted with purple or red -brown. Synoecus 

 australis, the Swamp -Quail of Australia, Tasmania, and South- 

 East New Guinea, is reddish-brown and grey above, with more 

 or less distinct black mottlings ; the throat is whitish, the under 



