PAINTED QUAIL. 
This bird is found in all the States of the Australian Commonwealth, except the 
North-Western portion of the Continent. 
Mr. Frank E. Howe, writing from Victoria, says : — “ This bird is plentiful 
throughout the district. I have seen it endeavour to lead me away from the nest 
by feigning a broken wing ; as I approached it retreated, fluttering along in front 
of me, and occasionally tumbling over ; if I retreated it would turn and quickly 
follow. This was repeated again and again. Sometimes fairly grown young 
have been flushed and on settling again have allowed themselves to be taken 
by hand. They breed from September to February and two broods are reared.” 
Mr. Tom Carter, writing to me, says : — “ This species was not observed 
in the North-West, but is fairly numerous about Broome Hill, in South-West 
Australia, and at Albany, Denmark, and the coastal hills. At Broome Hill they 
are plentiful from August to November, when the grass is at its best, but are 
much fewer in numbers during the rest of the year. They are to be found mostly 
on flats, but they also occur in thick scrub, and I have frequently flushed them 
from a rugged stony ridge, covered with timber and scrub. 
“ They begin to call about the middle of July, but I have heard them in 
February. The call is like the lowing of a buU at a distance and is usually 
heard in the night. I have found eggs here in October. The young when just 
hatched follow the parent birds.” 
Mr. C. F. Belcher sends me some notes from Southern Victoria : — “ This 
species is fairly local and resident. It frequents all kinds of bush country, 
having a preference for localities where there is Kangaroo-grass, and for the 
timbered banks of rivers and the edges of lagoons. The note is a musical ‘ coo,’ 
not unlike that of the Bronze-wing Pigeon. Four eggs are the usual clutch, 
but in September, 1899, 1 found a single hard-set egg in a leaf-lined hollow in the 
ground behind a tussock, from which the bird flew.” 
Miss Fletcher gives me the following notes from Tasmania : — “ In Banksia 
forest with slight undergrowth, on November 20th, 1909, I saw four young 
fully fledged, but accompanied by only one adult bird.” 
Sturt,* writing from Central Australia, says : — “ This bird is very common 
in many of the located parts of South-Eastern Australia, but is not a bird ^f the 
interior, and was not observed beyond the flats of the Darling, where it was 
occasionally flushed from amongst the long grass.” 
Gouldf writes “ It runs remarkably quick, and when flushed flies low, its 
pointed wings giving it much the appearance of a Snipe or Sandpiper. When 
running or walking over the ground the neck is stretched out and the head 
carried very high, which, together with the rounded contour of the back, gives it 
a very grotesque appearance. 
* Sturt, Exp. Centr. Austr., App., p. 46 (1849). 
t Gould, Handb. B. Australia, II., p. 180 (1865). 
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