SYNOICUS-EXCALFATORIA. 
291 
September and the four following months constitute the 
ordinary breeding season of this species. 
Huh. Tasmania, 
SYNOICUS CERYINUS, Gould. 
Northern Swamp-Quail. 
Gould, Ilandbk. Bds. Aust, Vol. i., sp. 490, p. 195. 
This bird is confined to the northern portions of Australia, the 
Islands of Torres Straits, and the South Coast of New Guinea. 
It lays its eggs on the ground in a slightly constructed nest of 
dried grasses. In the Dobroydo Collection are five eggs of this 
species taken in 1873, they are of a creamy-white ground colour, 
minutely dotted with brown ; like all the eggs of the genus 
Synoicus, the shell is very thick and strong. Length (A) 1'2 x 
0-91 inch ; (B) 1-19 x 0*93 inch ; (C) 1*19 x 0-94 inch ; (D) 1*2 x 
0*93 inch; (E) 1*18 x 0*91 inch. 
llab. Port Darwin and Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, 
Cape York, South Coast Now Guinea. (Ramsay.) 
Genus EXCALFATOEIA, Bonaparte. 
EXCALFATORIA AUSTRALIS, Gould. 
Least Swamp-Quail. 
Goidd, Ilandbk. lids. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 491, p. 197. 
“The Little Swamp-Quail is found tolerably abundant in the 
marshy parts about Botany Bay and South-head, in which 
situations it breeds freely, rearing often three broods in the 
year. It usually lays five eggs, in shape resembling those of 
Synoicus australis, Lath., but much smaller in size, being 1*1 inch 
in length by 0*8 in breadth, and when fresh of a pale light green 
colour, dotted all over with blackish-umber; in some the ground 
