text: Thu, 17 May 2001 18:03:39 +1000
  Some people had trouble with my original posting of this so I am having another go.
  On our regular monthly survey in April we recorded a new species for the Edithvale Wetlands southeast of Melbourne -- Brown Quail. This species is rare in the district and I had not seen one here nor anywhere nearby in 38 years of birding. On that occasion we saw a pair. One was flushed and another glimpsed running along an overgrown track. Not brilliant views, but good enough we thought arrogantly, to claim the sighting.
  The Simpson & Day field-guide, normally my favourite regarding illustrations, was no help and very misleading with no indication that a Brown Quail could ever look like the bird we'd seen. Only one bird, a male, is illustrated. The illustration of a female in Pizzey & Knight is better but the pale shaft streaks are too obscure and the bird is generally too pallid. HANZAB was disappointing in that the shaft streaks in the painting of the female are insufficiently bold, the head streaks too obscure and the breast too heavily patterned. The picture in the Slater field guide was by far the best likeness but our bird was rather darker.