Ornithology of Transvaal. 353 



the present species forms a third in the restricted subgenus 

 Coturnicops, the two previously known being the North- 

 American C noveboracensis (GmeL), and the Asiatic C. ex- 

 quisita, Swinhoe^ figured in ' The Ibis ' for 1875, pi. iii., both 

 of which are, like their southern congener, remarkable for the 

 conspicuously white secondary feathers of the wing. 



The two specimens are both marked by Mr. Ayres as females, 

 the one being apparently adult, and the other immature ; the 

 latter I have placed in the British Museum, retaining the 

 former in my own collection. 



Both examples are represented in the annexed plate, which 

 will enable them to be readily recognized ; but I may add the 

 following description of their coloration and marking : — 



Female adult. Crown of head and back of neck blackish 

 brown, interspersed with dark rufous-brown spots, which are 

 more numerous on the neck than on the head ; sides of head 

 mottled with pale and dark brown, the former slightly pre- 

 ponderating ; sides of neck rich rufous brown, with narrow 

 blackish-brown tips to the feathers ; back black, with nar- 

 row white edgings to the sides of the feathers, beyond which, 

 in some of the feathers, an outer edging of olive-brown is 

 perceptible ; similar but more conspicuous brown edgings 

 occur on the feathers of the greater and median wing-coverts, 

 which, with this exception, are blackish brown, as are also 

 the least coverts, all the coverts being more or less spotted 

 with white ; the primaries dull brown, the fifth and subsequent 

 ones being very slightly tipped with white ; all the secondaries 

 pure white, except a brown shaft-mark, slightly spreading on- 

 to the webs at the base and tip, and excepting also the last 

 feather, which is slate-coloured, mottled with Avliite ; upper 

 tail-coverts transversely marked with alternate bars of dark 

 rufous and blackish brown, the latter being the broader ; chin 

 white, slightly tinged with rufous ; and the throat the same, 

 but with the feathers very narrowly edged with blackish 

 brown ; breast rufous brown, but paler than the sides of the 

 neck ; flanks and abdomen mingled black and white, the black 

 predominating on the flanks, the white on the abdomen ; tibi£e 

 resembling on the sides the coloration of the flanks, and on 



