Birds of Celebes; Pbasianidae. 
665 
Distribution. India — except N. W. (Jerdou, etc, e 8, 39)’, Ceylon (Legge, etc. eS); 
Burmali (Oates 9, 14, 22); Tenasseriin (Davison k 1, etc.); South China (Swinhoe 3, 
De La Touche 38); Formosa and Hainan (Swinhoe 6, 8); Malay Peninsula 
(Cantor & Maingay 39, Davison 13, Kelham 19)', Sumatra (H. O. Forbes 20, 
Modigliani 37); Java (Horsfield 8, Bernstein e 3, e 4, etc); Billiton (Vorderniau 
33, 36)', Borneo (Mottley e 5, Low 12, etc.); Palawan (Whitehead 2,9); Luzon 
(Sonnerat, Mait.-Heriot 27); Negros (Steere 31)', Cehii (Burger in Dresd. Mus.); 
Mindanao (Platen in Dresd. Mus.); Sooloo Is. — Sooloo (Gruillem. 24), Bongao 
(Everett 41)', Panay, Cebu, Masbatc, Calamianes (Bourns & AVorcester I 2); Celebes 
— Minahassa (P. &F. Sarasiii), Goroiitalo Distr. (v. Rosenb. y’J, Joest (12), Ma- 
cassar (Wallace g 1, 39, P. & F. S. 44); Halmahera (Wallace, Bernst. g 7), 
Temate (Fischer g 8); Austrab'a — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and 
South Australia (Ramsay i 3). 
Introduced into Mauritius (E. Newton // 1) and ? Bourbon (Maillard 5, e 7). 
Within the wide range — India to South Australia — shown above, this 
minute Quail is subject to some local modifications. Gould recognised three 
species, separating Wallace’s specimens from South Celebes E. minima, “the 
smallest of the GaUinaceae" , and calling the Australian birds E. australis. Mr. 
Ogilvie-Grant groups his specimens as belonging to two forms, the typical 
E. ckinensis ranging from India and China to Malacca, reoccurring in Celebes 
and Ternate, and E. lineata (Scop.)M of the Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra and 
Java, with which the Australian birds are united. E. lineata is said to be darker 
above, more strongly blotched with black; the female more strongly barred below. 
So far as can be judged from the specimens in the Dresden Museum we should 
say that Australian birds alone bear out the differences to which Mr. Grant 
draws attention; the Sarasins’ North Celebesian examples (the bird seems pos- 
sibly to di€er somew^hat in the South) cannot be separated from others from the 
Philippines and Borneo; they are neither paler nor, as Gould believed, smaller. 
If the birds of any special locality be separated by name, it appears to us that 
these should be those of Australia (as E. ckinensis australis by those who make 
use of trinomials, or by some other sign by others), but there is so much still 
to be learnt about the variation of the species that it will be a long time before 
it is possible to define its local differences wdth accuracy. Till then nothing is 
gained by applying names ; they only suggest knowdedge which we have not got. 
In some parts of its range the Chinese Quail is a migrant; this Mr. Oates 
repeatedly states to be the case in Pegu, where it arrives in great numbers 
with the rains in May; in the Lucknow DiGsion of India also it is only to be 
found, so far as Mr. Reid (17) could ascertain, during the rains. In some other 
quarters it is known to be a resident; this, for instance, is the case, according 
to Inglis (16), in N. E. Cachar, and, according to Legge, at Colombo, Ceylon. 
It has been recorded as a breeding species in India, Ceylon, Burma, Formosa, 
1) It appears certain tliat Scopoli founded liis species on Sonnerat s Petite Caille de lisle de 
Lucon, though it is perfectly impossible to identify the bird by his description. Sonnerat figures the female 
Meyer & WigleswortK, Birds of Celebes (Nov. 2:ir‘i 1807). 84 
