TURNIX. 
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Family TURNICIDiE. 
Genus TUKNIX, Bonnaterrc. 
TURNIX MELANOGASTER, Gould. 
Black-breasted Turnix. 
Gould, Uandbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 479, p. 1/8. 
This bird is found breeding in the eastern portions of 
Queensland. The eggs, three or four in number for a sitting are 
placed in a slight depression beside a tuft of grass. A specimen 
in the Australian Museum Collection taken by Mr. Geo. Masters, 
is of a pale buffy-white ground colour, minutely and thickly 
freckled all over with light reddish-brown; towards the larger 
apex are bold blotches and spots of chestnut-brown, purplish-grey, 
and inlcy-black, and a few indistinct superimposed markings of 
slaty-lilac. Long axis 1-12 inch ; short axis 0-9 inch. 
Two specimens from a sitting of three, taken by Mr. George 
Barnard, of Coomooboolaroo, Queensland, measure as follows :— 
length (A) 1T8 x 0'9 inch ; (B) 1-16 x 0-91 inch. 
Unit. Wide Bay District, Dawson River, New South Wales. 
(Ramsay.) 
TURNIX YARIUS, Latham. 
Varied Turnix. 
Gould, Ilandbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 480, p. 179. 
This bird is found all over the eastern and southern portions of 
Australia, and the whole of Tasmania, and is the commonest 
species we have of the genus. Its eggs are usually laid in a 
slight cavity lined with dried grasses, close to a tuft of grass. 
Eggs four in number for a sitting, in form swollen ovals, slightly 
pointed at the smaller end, of a buffy-white ground colour thickly 
freckled and minutely spotted all over with reddish-chestnut, 
wood-brown and slaty-grey, in some instances the markings are 
larger and very much darker towards the larger apex, but never 
