QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 7 
wrong impression of the size of the birds constituting the genus. He says, ‘‘ Ces 
pigmes parmi les oiseaux qui composent l’ordre des Gallinacés!.”” These pygmies, 
however, by his own measurements of Hem. nigrifrons, pugnaa, nigricollis, thoracicus, 
tachydromus, and lunatus, are about the size of Cot. textilis, and two inches larger 
than the Chinese Quail, Cot. excalfactoria. My new species, Hem. Tuigoor, is also 
as large as Cot. tevtilis; and the smallest of the genus, I believe, Hem. maculosus, is 
larger than the Chinese Quail. With respect to their habits and manners, M. Temminck 
says they are polygamous, and live in sterile lands and amongst herbage, and on the 
borders of deserts: that they prefer running to flying; and prefer to either, conceal- 
ment in a tuft of grass, to escape pursuit: that they live principally on insects; and 
rarely touch minute seeds, and never grains. 
These details are not exactly characteristic of the species that came under my obser- 
vation, namely, Hem. pugnax, Taigoor, and Dussumieri: the first two species frequent 
cultivated lands, affecting the localities of Cot. tewtilis; and the last, the thick grass 
wastes which the Otis fulva delights in: it is also met with in fields. If polygamous, 
a male and several females should have been found together ; but the first two species 
were generally solitary when flushed, or at most in pairs, and Hem. Dussumieri always 
solitary. With respect to food, black Ants and minute coleopterous insects and grass 
seeds were found in the stomach of several individuals of the first two species, and 
white maggots, minute insects, and seeds of the Panicum Italicum in the stomach of 
individuals of Hem. Dussumieri. This last species certainly prefers concealment to 
flight ; but Hem. pugnax and Taigoor take to wing, although not very readily. 
Not having been quite satisfied that external characters had enabled me to form a 
just and precise estimate of generic and specific differences, I sought in internal orga- 
nization, and in the form of the tongue and the colour of the irides, for additional guides 
and evidences of affinities or dissimilarities ; inferring that, although similar internal 
organization, in its functionary results, might not absolutely regulate external form and 
habits, yet with similar form, or nearly similar form, trifling differences in the organs 
would be indicative of differences of habits, and would thus probably manifest the proxi- 
mate or remote relation in which the individual stood to the type of the group. 
The stomach, the ceca, the proportional length of the ceca to the intestine, the pro- 
portional length of the intestine to the body, the tongue, and the colour of the irides, 
were the principal matters to which I turned my attention; but I did not overlook the 
other organs. My examination extended through one hundred and ninety-eight species 
of animals, and in most of the species several individuals had the internal appearances 
carefully recorded : slight sketches were also made of the ceca and tongue, and of any 
peculiarities in the other organs ; and the colour of the irides was drawn. 
It would lead me into too wide a field to give in the present paper the general, much 
' Pig. et Gall. tom. iii. p. 605. 
