KING OR LEAST SWAMP QUAIL 7 
certain local record, and the species, like the last, must 
be close upon extinction in our district. It possesses 
a hind toe, and is the smallest of the true Quails we 
have. The male has a semicircular white collar 
across the back of the throat ; the female is incon- 
spicuous in comparison. The only birds with which 
one might confuse the King Quail in the field are 
the smaller species of the genus Turnix, which, 
however, are without the hind toe of the Quails 
proper. 
PAINTED QUAIL 
Ortygodes varius varius 
The Painted Quail is marked off at once from the 
Stubble, Brown, and King Quails in that it has no 
hind toe. Another characteristic of the genus Turnix 
is that the females are larger and better coloured 
than the males, who indeed are said to leave the 
females to fight for them, contrar}^ to the accepted 
rule. The Painted Quail is sometimes called " Bush 
Quail " — a good name, for it affects the lightly 
timbered forest country just as does the Stubble 
Quail the cultivated plain. At Airey's Inlet I once 
met with several of these birds in quite thick bush. 
They are not nearly so plentiful as the Stubble Quail. 
Partly, however, from the fact that they live in rather 
difficult shooting-country, and partly from their 
not being found in any one place in sufficient numbers 
