2o6 allp:n's naturalist's library. 



more rarely, two, though not unfrequently one or other of the 

 feet may have two spurs. 



I. THE RED SPUR-FOWL. GALLOPERDIX SPADICEA. 



La Perdrix rouge de Madagascar^ Sonnerat, Voy. Ind. Orient. 



ii. p. 169 (1782). 

 Tetrao spadiceus, Gmel. S. N. i. pt. ii. p. 759 (1788). 

 Francolifuis spadiceus, J. E. Gray, 111. Ind. Orn. ii. pi. 42, fig. 2 



(1834). 

 Folvpkctron northic^, J. E. Gray, 111. Ind. Orn. ii. pi. 43, fig. i 



' (1834). 

 Ithaginis madagascariensis, G. R. Gray, List Brit. Mus. Gall. 



p. 32(1844). 

 Galloperdix spadiceus^ Blyth ; Gould, B. Asia, vi. pi. 68 (1854); 

 Hume and Marshall, Game Birds of India, i. p. 247, pi. 

 (1878); Gates, ed. Hume's Nests and Eggs Ind. B. iii. 

 p. 423 (1890); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 

 261 (1893). 

 Adult Male. — General colour brownish-chestnut or rufous- 

 chestnut, most of the feathers with pale greyish-brown margins ; 

 crowfi of the head dark brown ; sides of the head and neck 

 greyish-brown. Total length, 14-6 inches; wing, 6*3 ; tail, 5-4; 

 tarsus, 17. 



Adult Female. — Differs in having the upper-parts irregularly 

 barred with black and buff, and the feathers of the neck and 

 under-parts tipped with black. 



Specimens from Mt. Abu and the dryer northern parts of 

 this bird's range, are paler and less strongly marked than ex- 

 amples from Southern India. 



Range. — Peninsula of India, more especially the western parts. 

 Madagascar [introduced]. 



As Mr. Hume very ably puts it : — " Certainly the distribution 

 of the Red Spur-Fowl is as yet very imperfectly understood, and 

 it inosculates so strangely with that of the Painted Spur-Fowl 

 {G, hmulata), as will be seen when I come to deal with that 



