334 
BIRDS OF BEITISH BUEMAH. 
Genus EXCALFACTORIA, Bonap. 
688. EXCALFACTOEIA CHINENSIS. 
THE BLUE-BEEASTED QUAIL. 
Tetrao chinensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 277. Excalfactoria chinensis, Jerd. 
B. Ind. ii, p. 691 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 653 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 311 ; 
Oates, S. F. iii. p. 346 ; Wald. Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 224 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 151; 
David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 397 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 447 ; Hume, 8. F. 
viii. p. Ill ; Oates, S. F. viii. p. 167 ; Hume Sf Marsh. Game Birds, ii. p. 161, 
pi. ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 196 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 236. Coturnix chinensis, 
Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 755. 
Description. — Male. Upper plumage, wing-coverts and tertiaries olive- 
brown^ marked with black and pale rufous^ and most of the feathers with 
pale shaft-streaks ; primaries and secondaries plain brown ; chin^ throat 
and cheeks black ; a broad moustachial stripe from the gape white ; a 
broad collar below the black of the throat white^ succeeded by a narrow 
band of black ; a narrow white line from the nostrils to the eye ; forehead^ 
feathers round the eye^ ear-coverts_, breast_, sides of the neck and of the 
body slaty blue ; abdomen^ vent and tail chestnut. 
The female has the upper plumage similar to the male ; the chin and 
throat are white ; a distinct large supercilium and a band from the gape 
down the cheeks,, expanding and surrounding the throaty rufous ; sides of 
the head pale rufous speckled with black ; lower plumage pale buff^ all but 
the centre of the abdomen barred with black. 
Iris red ; bill bluish blacky lighter at the gape ; eyelids plumbeous ; legs 
bright yellow ; claws horn-colour. 
Length 5*7 inches^ tail 1^ wing 2'8^ tarsus -8, bill from gape '5. The 
female is of about the same size as the male;, but both sexes vary much 
in size. 
The Blue-breasted Quail is generally distributed over Burmah^ but is 
nowhere apparently very common^ except in Southern Pegu^ at which part 
of the Province it arrives in May in large numbers. Some birds may pos- 
sibly stay in the country all the year round. 
It is found over many portions of Eastern India and Ceylon^ Bengal, 
Assam, Southern China, Cochin China, the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, 
Java and Borneo ; in a modified form it appears to extend to Celebes, the 
Philippine Islands, New Guinea and Australia. 
This lovely little Quail is very abundant from May to August and Sep- 
tember in the lower and more swampy portions of Pegu, such as the plains 
between the Pegu and the Sittang rivers. I do not remember to have ever 
shot it in the dry weather. It arrives in May ; and at the first it may be 
