l62 THE BLUE-BREASTED OR PAINTED QUAIL. 



putra, in the Daphla Hills, and apparently right up the valley of 

 Assam as I have several specimens procured at Sadiya. West- 

 ward it, occurs, but only I think as a monsoon visitant, in Maldah, 

 Purneah, Northern Tirhoot, the Valley of Nepal, Basti, 

 Gorakhpur, the northern portions of Oudh (a few being found 

 even in the Lucknow Division), the northern portions of 

 Rohilkhand, the lower ranges of Kumaun and Garhwal, the 

 Dun, ascending to nearly the elevation of Mussooree, and the 

 outer ranges of the Himalayas almost as far west as Simla. 



In India Proper I have no further record of its occurrence. 

 Blyth says it occurs in Aracan, and it very probably does so, 

 but I have no record of the fact. 



Of Pegu, Mr. Oates writes : — " The Blue-Breasted Quail is 

 distributed during the season over the whole of the plains of the 

 Pegu Province. About the ist May immense numbers arrive 

 and spread themselves over the country. At first the sexes 

 remain in separate bevies, but by June the pairing commences. 

 After the breeding season, the majority, if not the whole, of the 

 birds disappear. Some few may remain during the dry weather, 

 but I am not sure of this. They like luxuriant grass growing 

 in swampy plains, and numbers are flushed on the bunds of the 

 paddy fields when the sportsman is after snipe." 



In Tenasserim, where it has been said to be generally 

 distributed, we have only met with it in the extreme south, and 

 even there it was by no means common. 



No one else seems to have procured it in this province, and 

 Colonel Tickell distinctly says he never saw it in Burma, 

 meaning thereby Central Tenasserim, with which alone he was 

 familiarly acquainted. 



Southward from Tenasserim it extends throughout the 

 western portion, at any rate, of the Malay Peninsula, being 

 extremely numerous in some localities, as about Klang, in the 

 Salangore Territory. It occurs equally in Sumatra, Borneo and 

 Java, and in Southern China, Formosa and Hainan. There is 

 no record, so far as I know, of the fact, but it must also extend 

 to Independent Burma and Siam. 



This same species, or an extremely closely-allied form (separ- 

 ated as E. minima by Gould), doubtfully entitled to specific rank, 

 occurs in Celebes, and it is probably this same slightly smaller 

 form that is found in the Philippines. 



Another extremely closely-allied species (if indeed it be 

 entitled to specific separation),separated by Gould as E. aus traits, 

 is found in suitable localities over the greater part of Australia. 

 Lastly, I understand that another barely separable race has been 

 found in New Guinea. 



I should be disposed to unite all these forms, and define the 

 range of the species roughly by lines running from Simla to 

 Formosa, Formosa to East Australia, along Southern Australia 

 to Ceylon, and thence back to Simla, noting that this species 



