MALAYAN ORNITHOLOGY. 173 



GrALLUS YARITJS (SllRW.). 



In the Botanical Gardens at Singapore there was a specimen of 

 tins handsome Jungle-fowl ; but probably it had been imported. 



Excalfactoria chinensis (Linn.). The Blue-breasted Quail. ' 



This tiny but most beautifully marked Quail swarms through- 

 out the Malay States, being found in almost every dry paddy-field 

 or tract of scrub and grass-covered ground. It is difficult to flush, 

 not rising until almost trodden on ; then, after skimming over the 

 grass with a Partridge-like flight for fifty or sixty yards, it drops 

 like a stone, and is hard to put up again, even with a dog. 



The sudden way in which they drop to the ground frequently 

 deceives the inexperienced sportsman, who, thinking he has made a 

 successful shot, hurries to where the bird apparently fell, and makes 

 a long and fruitless search, while the object of his pursuit is run- 

 ning as hard as it can lay legs to the ground to a distant part of 

 the field. 



They are very good eating, but so small as to be scarcely worth 

 a charge of shot ; and after being a few weeks in the country, and 

 ceasing to look on them as a novelty, one seldom fires at them, con- 

 fining one's attention to larger game, in the shape of Snipe, Plover, 

 &e. 



The sexes are very unlike in plumage, the male being by far the 

 more handsome and brightly-coloured bird. One, shot near Sai- 

 yong, Perak, on 24th April, was 5| inches long ; irides deep crimson ; 

 legs bright orange ; beak black ; head and upper parts brown ; 

 feathers of the back pale-shafted, and banded, mostly on one web 

 only, with black ; wings pale brown, some of the coverts edged with 

 rufous and bluish grey ; forehead, cheeks, sides of neck, and breast 

 bright bluish grey ; moustache- streak and broad crescentic mark 

 on throat pure white, bordered by a deep black line ; chin and 

 throat black ; abdomen ruddy chestnut. The female is not nearly 

 so boldly marked : one, shot at Singapore on 7th November, measured 

 5i inches in length, tarsus f inch ; legs orange ; irides red-brown ; 

 supercilium, throat, and forehead rufous brown ; chin dull white ; 

 breast dingy brown, with narrow black cross bars ; feathers of flanks 

 much lengthened ; the white and black markings of the throat, also 

 the chestnut abdomen of the male, were wanting. 



