The Plate therefore represents two females, and the appellation of _microurus_ given to the male bird should be the one adopted. As the male has not been figured, the following description of that sex is given:—
Crown of the head, back and upper surface mottled with black, brown and fawn-colour, the latter occupying the external edge of the feathers, and the black and brown forming alternate circular markings on each feather; throat, neck, chest and flanks dull fawn-colour, the feathers of the neck and chest blotched with brown; flanks marked with the same colour, assuming the form of bars; tail-feathers almost invisible; centre of the abdomen and under tail-coverts buffy-white, without spots or markings; irides straw-yellow passing into black at the point; feet greenish yellow.
Total length, 4½ inches; _bill_, 11/16; _wing_, 3¼; _tarsi_, ⅞.
Independently of the plains of South Australia formerly given as the restricted habitat of this species, I have lately received a letter from Mr. Strange of Sydney, in which he states a female had been procured in the neighbourhood of Botany Bay. I am also in possession of an egg of this bird, which in general character resembles that of _Turnix_; it is somewhat suddenly contracted at the smaller end, the ground-colour is stone-white, sprinkled with small blotches of umber-brown and vinous-grey, the latter colour appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell, the sprinkled markings predominating at the larger end; the length of the egg is 1 inch and one-eighth by seven-eighths in breadth.
443. Pedionomus torquatus, _Gould_, female Vol. V. Pl. 80. —— microurus, _Gould_, male.
However widely the members of this genus are dispersed, inhabiting as one or other of them do all quarters of the Old World, Australia is the great nursery of the race, since it is in that country that we find the species more numerous than elsewhere; they not only inhabit every part of the continent that has yet been explored, but they extend their range to the islands adjacent to the coast and even to Van Diemen’s Land; some species enjoy a wide range across the continent from east to west, while others are very local; grassy plains and stony ridges thickly interspersed with scrubs and grasses are the situations they frequent; their eggs are invariably four in number, pointed in form, and very like those of the Sandpipers; their only nest is a few grasses placed in a hollow on the ground; in their habits and actions they differ considerably from the Quails and Partridges, and, strange as it may appear, approach more closely to the _Tringæ_, particularly to those species with the more attenuated form of bill; when rising from almost beneath your feet, they fly, especially the smaller species, straight and with arrow-like swiftness to the distance of one or two hundred yards, and then suddenly pitch to the ground. Their flesh, although eatable, is dry and deficient in flavour when compared with that of the Quails and Partridges.