This bird, somewhat larger than the preceding, is not by any means so delicate in appearance.  The colour of its plumage is similar in some respects, but has close black scollops on the breast and neck without any spots on the wings.  This bird also frequents the banks of the Darling and the Murray, but is not so common as Geopelia cuneata.  I first heard it on the marshes of the Macquarie, but could not see it.  The fact is that it has the power of throwing its voice to a distance, and I mistook it for some time for the note of a large bird on the plains, and sent a man more than once with a gun to shoot it, without success.  At last, as Mr. Hume and I were one day sitting under a tree on the Bogan creek, between the Macquarie and the Darling, we heard the note, and I sent my man Fraser to try once more if he could discover what bird it was, when on looking up into the tree under which we were sitting we saw one of these little doves, and ascertained from the movement of its throat that the sound proceeded from it, although it still fell on our ears as if it had been some large bird upon the plain.  I have therefore taken upon me to call it the “Ventriloquist.”

103.  Pedionomus TORQUATUS, Gould.—­The plain Wanderer.

This singular bird, in plumage and habit so like the Quail, was first discovered on the plains of Adelaide by Mr. Gould, where it appeared in considerable numbers in the year 1839-40.  It was afterwards procured by a persevering collector in that colony, Mr. Strange, who is now in Sydney.  Although in many respects resembling a Quail, this bird has long legs like a Bustard, but has a hind toe which that bird has not.  We fell in with several in the N.W. interior, but they were all solitary birds.  How far therefore we might conclude that they migrate northwards may be doubtful, although, it is impossible to suppose they would proceed in any other direction.  The Pedionomus is a stupid little bird, and is more frequently caught by the dog than shot.  Its general colour is a light brown, speckled with black like a quail.  Its neck is white, spotted thickly with black, and has a white iris.

104.  HEMIPODIUS VARIUS.—­Varied Quail.

This bird is the prettiest of its tribe, and is very common in many of the located parts of south-eastern Australia, but is not a bird of the interior, and was not observed beyond the flats of the Darling, where it was occasionally flushed from amongst the long grass.

105.  COTURNIX pectoralis.—­Quail.

This bird is very common on the better description of plains in South Australia, and two or three specimens were shot during the early progress of the Expedition, but it was not seen to the north of Stanley’s Range.  It is to be observed, indeed, that few quails of any kind were seen in the interior.  This variety is a very pretty bird, with bright brown plumage, mottled like that of the ordinary quail, and is characterized by a black spot on the breast.