A Manual of Philippine Birds. Richard C. McGregor
with claw, 57; bill from nostril, 14.
Young.—A bird measuring but 165 in length, taken in Calayan, October 7, 1903, bears a general resemblance to the adult but the superorbital space, lores, chin, and throat are closely feathered; forehead, chin, and area below eye dull yellowish brown; throat, sides of neck, and breast dull brown; middle of abdomen dark ochraceous brown; feathers of upper parts dark brown, obscurely edged with olive-brown on back, scapulars, and wing-coverts; plumage, except remiges and rectrices, soft and decomposed.
Nest.—The incubation mound built by this species is fully described below. The eggs are prized by the natives for food; both the eggs and the birds are quite palatable. When fresh the thin surface layer of the egg is dark pink, usually smooth, but occasionally roughened by small lumps; when exposed to air and light for some time the color becomes dull, dirty brown and in many cases the outer layer crumbles away exposing the true shell which is dull white and closely pitted. Five eggs from Calayan taken in December measure: 78 by 52; 82 by 52.5; 82.5 by 47; 80 by 51; 79 by 51.
“This species probably occurs on every island of any size in the group. It is frequently met with a considerable distance inland, where it frequents wooded plains and hill. Its nest is usually, though by no means always, built near the seashore. Several pairs of birds frequently nest in the same mound, scratching up a little additional material every time that an egg is deposited, eventually forming a very large mound of earth, decayed leaves, sticks, etc., which in extreme cases comes to measure from 4 to 5 meters in diameter by 1½ meters high in the middle. The mound is frequently formed about the roots of some old stump. When ready to lay, the female tunnels into this mound, sometimes even burrowing into the solid ground to a depth of half a meter or more, so that the eggs are one to two meters below the surface of the mound. The egg is deposited at the bottom of this burrow, which is then filled up. The young birds dig to the surface as soon as hatched. They can run and fly when they leave the shell, and seem always to shift for themselves from the day of their birth. M. cumingi seems to lay all the year round, the female apparently depositing an egg about once a week. The eggs are oval in form, of a curious pinkish color when fresh, but rapidly fading to a light dirty brown if exposed to the light.
“The old birds seem rather reluctant to take wing and when flushed fly but a short distance, alight on the ground and run with great rapidity.
“There is much individual variation as to size and color even in birds from one locality. Length, 336 to 380; culmen, 15 to 19; tarsus, 55 to 68; wing, 210 to 233; tail, 63 to 86. Iris dark chocolate-brown; bill light yellowish at tip, brown at base; legs sometimes dark brown, but usually strongly tinged with red, especially at back; feet dark brown to black; nails black.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
Suborder PHASIANI.
Family PHASIANIDÆ.
Bill strong and horny, nostrils oblong, never hidden by feathers; culmen curved but not hooked; tarsi naked and in the male armed with spurs (Excalfactoria without spurs); toes four, naked, and never pectinated along sides; sexes differently colored.
Genera.
a1 Much smaller; length less than 150 mm.; head without crest or comb; spurs absent Excalfactoria (p. 12)
a2 Much larger; length more than 350 mm.; head crested or with a comb; spurs present in the male.b1. No crest but with a fleshy comb; tail-coverts without ocelli; male with one pair of spurs Gallus (p. 13)b2. No comb but with an elongated crest; longer tail-coverts ocellated; male with two or three pairs of spurs Polyplectron (p. 16)
Genus EXCALFACTORIA Bonaparte, 1856.
This genus resembles Turnix but is distinguished from it by having a hind toe; the male is much handsomer than the female; the tail has but eight short rectrices which are hidden by the long upper coverts.
2. EXCALFACTORIA LINEATA (Scopoli).
ISLAND PAINTED QUAIL.
Oriolus lineatus Scopoli, Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. (1786), 2, 87.
Excalfactoria lineata Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1893), 22, 253; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 32; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1901), 1, 48, pl. 4, fig. 2; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 7.
Pu-gong bú-quet, ti-co ti-co, Manila; pu-gong pa-rang, Calapan, Mindoro.
Basilan (McGregor); Batan (McGregor); Bongao (Everett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Cebu (Bourns & Worcester); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Heriot, Whitehead, McGregor); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester); Mindanao (Koch & Schadenberg, Clemens); Mindoro (McGregor, Porter); Negros (Layard, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Palawan (Whitehead, Bourns & Worcester, White); Panay (Bourns & Worcester); Samar (Whitehead); Sibuyan (McGregor); Siquijor (Celestino); Sulu (Guillemard); Ticao (McGregor). Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Australia.
Adult male.—Upper parts dark brown; most of the feathers with light shaft-lines, large subterminal black blotches, and some black bars; the black markings heaviest on lower back; forehead, circumorbital area, sides of neck, breast, and flanks slate-blue; chin, upper throat, and lower half of face black; throat patch bordered posteriorly by a wide, crescentic, white patch which is bordered posteriorly by a narrow black band; a white included patch on side of face from lower mandible to below ear, the anterior end of which is pointed; a narrow white line from below nostril to eye; a patch of rich chestnut covering middle of abdomen and lower breast; wings sandy brown; coverts and secondaries vermiculated with darker brown; tail chestnut; upper tail-coverts chestnut mixed with slate-blue. Iris deep red; bill dark blue, black along upper part; legs dark yellow; nails brown. Length about 135. Five males measure: Wing, 66 to 70; tail-coverts,1 26 to 28; exposed culmen, 9 to 11; tarsus, 18 to 19.
Adult female.—Upper parts and wings as in the male, but with a light buff, median line on head; forehead, sides of head, and throat dark buff; the black and white throat patch of male replaced in female by an equal area of dark buff in which the white bases of feathers show through on chin and upper throat; a line of fine black spots from gape to below ear-coverts; breast and flanks light buff, each feather crossed by one to three crescentic marks of blackish brown; middle of abdomen white or with a pale buff wash. Five females measure: Wing, 67 to 71; tail-coverts, 22 to 26; exposed culmen, 10 to 11; tarsus, 17 to 18.5.
Young.—In a very young chick from Sibuyan, sex undetermined, the upper parts, including wings and coverts, are blackish brown; top of head marked with three buffy lines extending from forehead to nape and separated by wide blackish brown bands; wing-coverts and feathers of back with edges and shafts buff; chin and throat pale yellow; upper breast, sides, and flanks black with wide white shaft-stripes; belly dirty yellowish buff. A nearly full grown male in mixed plumage, from Calapan, has the black chin-spot developed, the white patches partly developed, and the breast, abdomen, and flanks retain some of the old striped feathers of the first plumage along with the new chestnut and slate feathers. The young female of E. chinensis is said to have the upper breast and sides spotted; as age increases these spots resolve themselves into transverse bars. The young female of E. lineata probably undergoes a similar change of plumage.
Both the painted and bustard quails frequent grassy fields and plains, usually in small companies. When flushed they fly but a short distance and seldom get up a second time, seeming to place more reliance on running than on flight. Except Polyplectron the genera of the Philippine Turnicidæ and Phasianidæ range from the coasts to the highlands.