Coturnix chinensis lineata (Scopoli)
Painted Quail
Oriolus lineatus Scopoli, Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr., fasc. 2, 1786, p. 87. (Type locality, Luzon, ex Sonnerat.)
Excalfactoria sinensis Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 61 (Guam); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 37 (Guam); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 68 (Guam); idem, Amer. Anthro., 4, 1902, p. 711 (Guam); idem, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 265 (Guam); idem, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb., 9, 1905, p. 78 (Guam); Cox, Island of Guam, 1917, p. 21 (Guam); Nelson, Proc. 1st Pan-Pacific Sci. Conf., 1921, p. 273 (Guam).
Excalfactoria chinensis lineata Wetmore, in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 176 (Guam); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 41 (Guam); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 20 (Marianne); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 198 (Guam); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 2, 1934, p. 96 (Guam); Bryan, Guam. Rec., vol. 13, no. 2, 1936, p. 15 (Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 223 (Guam); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 287 (Guam).
Excalfactoria chinensis Strophlet, Auk, 1946, p. 536 (Guam).
Coturnix chinensis lineata Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 47 (Guam).
Geographic range.—Philippines and parts of Malaysia. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands—Guam (introduced).
Characters.—Adult: A small quail with upper parts brown splotched with black and streaked with buff; males with face and throat black surrounded by white line, upper breast blue gray, lower breast, belly and under tail-coverts and tail near "burnt sienna"; females lighter than males, underparts pale brown, mottled with blackish on breast and sides of body; bill dark lead colored, feet yellow.
Measurements.—Three adult males from Guam measure: wing, 66, 67, 67; culmen, 9.2, 10.0, 10.3; tarsus, 18.1, 18.7, 22.6.
Weights.—Two adult males taken by NAMRU2 at Guam weigh 34.5 and 35.5 grams.
Specimens examined.—Total number, 3 males from Mariana Islands, USNM—Guam (Feb. 24, June 13, 28).
Remarks.—Seale (1901:37) writes that the Painted Quail was introduced to Guam from Manila, or the island of Luzon in the Philippine Islands, by Captain Pedro Duarty of the Spanish Army in 1894. It was a successful introduction; the bird is well adapted to the grasslands, open hillsides, and fallow rice paddies. The bird appears to offer no serious competition to native species, because there are few native birds which depend largely on this habitat. The NAMRU2 party obtained specimens at Mt. Santa Rosa and near Agat; others were seen as singles or pairs near Umatac and on Mount Tenjo. Strophlet (1946:536) observed the birds in the southern part of Guam in 1945. He found them as singles or pairs in the months of September, October and November. Wilfred Crabb reported a covey of seven birds in June, 1945. Two males taken in June had enlarged testes. Seale (1901:37) obtained a nest of seven eggs.