THE BLUE-BREASTED OR PAINTED QUAIL. \6j 



entire lower surface, except the chin and throat and a narrow 

 band down the centre of the abdomen, strongly barred trans- 

 versely with blackish brown. As the birds get older, these 

 barrings disappear, but adult females still exhibit these bars, 

 though much diminished in breadth, on the sides of the breast 

 and flanks. In very old females barely a trace of these remain, 

 and only on the flanks. 



The young males are very similar to the young females, 

 except that the conspicuous shaft stripes of the neck and mantle 

 are white instead of buffy. In these the change from youth to 

 age is as follows : — 



On the upper surface the general tint grows darker, the shaft 

 stripes one by one disappear, and in very old adults disappear 

 wholly ; on the lower surface the black and white markings on the 

 face and throat begin to appear, dull slaty blue mingles with the 

 brown of the lower parts ; then a narrow band down the middle 

 of the abdomen, the thigh coverts, vent, and lower tail-coverts 

 become bright chestnut. Gradually this chestnut creeps up over 

 the entire abdomen, sides, and flanks, and the middle of the 

 breast, leaving only the sides of the breast and the base of the 

 throat below the black line a purer slaty blue. In the mean- 

 time a rather duller shade of this same colour has overspread the 

 sides of the neck, head, and forehead ; lastly, the white line from 

 the nostrils to the eye, often very indistinct in younger birds, has 

 come out very clear and distinct. 



The male that we have figured is not an old bird ; it hardly 

 shows the white line at all, and has much more blue and less 

 chestnut on the lower surface than very old birds have. The 

 female figured is a very old bird. 



Besides the races or sub-species from the Philippines, Celebes, 

 New Guinea and Australia to which I have already alluded, there 

 is an Excalfactoria adamsoni from Western and Southern Africa 

 (though it is more seldom seen in the south) truly congeneric, 

 Mr. Sharpe assures me, with, and not unlike, our bird. 



