QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 15 
2. Corurnix TEXxTILIS, Temm. 
This very handsome bird differs in some trifling respects from M. Temminck’s descrip- 
tion. Its medium size is a good deal smaller than the common Quail, although indivi- 
duals frequently attain the magnitude of small specimens of the former. It varies in 
length, measuring from the tip of the bill over the crown to the end of the tail, inclu- 
sive of tail, from 6,4, to 7-2, inches: tail 14%; to 1-%, inch. The colour of the bill 
differs in different individuals from a reddish horn colour to nearly black ; length to 
the gape +3, inch, depth at the nostril ~ to-*, inch. Jrides dusky red or brown red. 
The whole upper surface of the bird has a very close resemblance to Cot. dactylisonans, 
but the colours are generally brighter, and there are more feathers with yellow dagger- 
like stripes down the shafts. The under surface differs entirely from the common Quail ; 
and, as I before mentioned, in some matters from M. Temminck’s description. The 
chin and throat are pure white; the throat has two narrow semicircular black bands 
across it, and a broad longitudinal black band proceeds from the upper transverse band 
to the base of the lower mandible. The sides and fore part of the neck and the flanks are 
rufous. On the centre of the breast, in old males, there is a large patch of velvet black, 
which ramifies into a multitude of black stripes on the white belly and sides down to the 
vent. In younger males the black patch on the breast is small or broken into stripes. 
The female differs in all the colours being less bright, in the absence of the longitu- 
dinal band under the chin, in the obscureness of the transverse bands, and in the black 
patch on the breast and stripes on the belly and flanks being broken into dots. 
A friend, who is a sportsman and an amateur naturalist, has lately written to me 
from India, that he is satisfied that the Cot. textilis is the male of Cot. dactylisonans. As 
I possess both sexes of both species, it may be that my friend formed his opinion from 
finding specimens of females of Cot. teztilis, resembling to a certain extent the fe- 
male of Cot. dactylisonans ; but they are always distinguishable by the inferior size of 
the female of Cot. textilis. The males of the two species cannot be mistaken for each 
other. I observe also, from a note in my journal, that the flesh of this species is brown, 
that of Cot. dactylisonans being white: this fact alone would indicate a specific differ- 
ence. 
In a male and a female examined, the intestinal canal was 11+ inches long; the ceca 
club-shaped, 1,3; inch long ; from the insertion of the ceca to the rectum 2,3; inches : 
the proportional lengths have been stated in the tabular view. The remaining organs 
were as in the other species. 
Grass seeds, vegetable fibre, and other vegetable matter, apparently the calyces of dif- 
ferent kinds of pulse, found in the stomach. 
These birds are met with all over India, and I have seen specimens which were abso- 
