Order TURNICIFORMES 
Family TURN 1C I DM. 
No. 16. 
TURNIX MELANOGASTER. 
BLACK-BREASTED QUAIL. 
(Plate 14.) 
Hemipodius MELANOGASTER Gould, P.Z.S., p. 7 (1837), Queensland. 
Hemipodius melanogaster Gould, P.Z.S., p. 7 (1837) ; id., Syn. B. Austr. PI. 31 (1837) ; 
id., B. Austr., V., PL 81 (1848), 
Turnix melanogaster Gould, in Grey’s Journ. Disc., II., p. 419 (1841) ; id., Handb. B. 
Austr., II., p. 178 (1865); Ramsay, P.L.S., N.S.W., I., p. 184 (1876); id.. Tab. 
List. Austr. B., p. 18 (1888) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Ibis, p. 472 (1889) ; North, Austr. Mus. 
Cat., No. 12, p. 285 (1889) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus., XXII., p. 550 (1893) ; 
Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. B., p. 730 (1901) ; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs Brit. 
Mus., I., p. 72 (1901) ; Hall, Key B. Austr., p. 75 (1906) ; Mathews, Handl. B. 
Austral., p. 7 (1908). 
Distribution. Queensland ; New South Wales. 
Adult female. General colour above brown, with a good deal of chestnut on the mantle, 
upper back and scapulars, which are all crossed with narrow bars of black, the 
scapulars with a broad black subterminal bar, and having a longitudinal white streak 
on the edge of either web ; these streaks of white, bordered by a hne of black, are also 
apparent on the mantle and upper back ; but less marked on the lower back, which 
is almost entirely brown, save for a few indistinct bars of rufous and black ; rump 
and upper tail-coverts with a slight shade of chestnut, but otherwise brown, sparsely 
barred across with black, and having a few white, black-edged, streaks or spots of 
white on the margins of the feathers, some of the upper tail-coverts with whitish 
spots or bars, followed by a terminal bar of black ; wings much more thickly spangled 
with white, the wing-coverts in the main ashy-brown, but mixed with ch^estnut, 
most of them being of the latter colour, narrowly barred with black towards the 
ends, and having a broad white streak along the outer margin, before which is a 
conspicuous black streak ; the lesser coverts nearly uniform dark brown, shghtly 
tinged with chestnut, but devoid of white streaks ; the greater coverts dusky-brown, 
with sandy-brown margins ; primary-coverts and quills uniform dusky-brown, 
the two outer primaries sandy-brown along the outer web ; secondaries also dusky- 
brown, more or less sandy-buff towards the end of the outer web, the inner 
secondaries externally tinged with chestnut, and with a few dusky cross-bars ; tail- 
feathers dusky-brown, freckled with a few cross-hnes of black ; crown of head black, 
with a slight tinge of chestnut towards the nape, and a few white spotted feathers 
above the eye, continued above the ear-coverts to the sides of the neck, the feathers 
of which are black, with a broad subterminal spot of white, these white spotted 
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