QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 5 
be inferred that it also is gregarious. There is at all times some risk of misconception 
in propounding generic characters from habits and manners when we have not a familiar 
acquaintance with the whole of the species. 
M. Temminck says, ‘‘ Les véritables perdrix n’habitent jamais les foréts, ils ne se 
perchent point habituellement.”! Again, ‘‘ Toutes les espéces de perdrix francolins, 
sur lesquelles je suis parvenu 4 rassembler des notices sures, vivent dans les foréts le 
long des rividres, se perchent sur les arbres durant le jour, et toujours pendant la nuit.’’? 
And again, ‘“‘ Les tarses des males sont munis de deux ou d’un seul éperon.””* 
In India the most common game bird in the country is designated, in books, a Fran- 
colin; that is to say, the Francolinus Ponticerianus. The males have spurs, and the 
bird sometimes perches on trees or bushes during the day, and frequently, if not com- 
monly, during the night : yet it never inhabits forests, but almost exclusively gardens and 
cultivated lands ; and has the form, air, and (with the exceptions above mentioned) the 
habits and manners, of the common English Partridge, Perdia cinerea. It is known only 
as a Partridge; and to call it by any other name to sportsmen in India would be looked 
upon as puerile pedantry. A living specimen now in the Gardens of the Zoological 
Society affords European naturalists an opportunity of satisfying themselves how little 
the bird has the air of a true Francolin. 
Plumage, which can have little influence in generic distinctions, is of primary import- 
ance as a specific character ; yet, used without mature consideration and a sound judge- 
ment, it greatly tends to the multiplication of fictitious species, and the consequent 
promulgation of error. I have long thought, and daily experience tends to confirm my 
opinion, that the researches of present and future naturalists will deprive discoverers of 
many of their honours in establishing new species of birds ; myself, I feel satisfied, 
amongst others. Ignorant of the difference of plumage between individuals consequent 
upon sex, upon nonage, and upon annual changes connected with productive develop- 
ment, books abound with descriptions of supposed new birds which will ultimately 
merge into previously known species. Mr. Stephens somewhere mentions that the 
same bird is described under four different names in Dr. Latham’s extensive work. 
But although plumage cannot supply generic characters, yet the experienced naturalist 
detects affinities in the extension or prevalence of particular colours or marks: for in- 
stance, the dagger-shaped stripe down the shaft of the back-feathers of the common 
Quail is found in Cot. tectilis and in the New Zealand Quail*; in the Cot. excalfactoria 
it is narrowed to a mere line ; and it is traceable in their congeners the Colins of Ame- 
rica ; in both species of the Cape Partridge it is broad and distinct, and there is a family 
plumage in the breast-feathers of these birds in a broad longitudinal white stripe down 
the shaft, which exactly corresponds with the markings of the Jungle Hen of India: the 
males have spurs like Francolins, but they have not their air. Characteristic family 
1 p. 292. 2 p. 292. 3 p. 299. + New species. 
