18 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE 
M. Temminck, cannot be a Quail, but may be a Partridge; but having rudimentary 
spurs it might be a Francolin, save that it never perches. With the size, the air, the 
internal organization, the general habits, and common characteristics of a Quail, would 
the objects of natural history be advanced by constituting it the type of a new genus ? 
I think not, and have therefore preferred throwing anomalous species into sections to 
instituting genera for them. 
The following is the description of the sexes in a mature state. Bill black, short, 
compressed, higher than wide. Upper mandible the segment of a circle. Tongue of 
the same form as in the other species. Legs and toes reddish. JIrides reddish fuscous. 
Whole upper surface rufous chocolate brown, barred with lines of yellowish dilute 
tawny, edged with thread-like lines of black, and every feather freckled with the most 
minute black dots ; on the scapulars, secondaries, and wing-coverts, are a few scattered 
and irregular blotches of black: feathers of the head and back neck tipped with black : 
tail barred with black, brown, and tawny: primary and secondary quills barred with 
tawny, principally on the outer web: forehead and throat rufous, the latter with a spot 
of white at the bottom of the rufous: over each eye a line of reddish white, continued 
to the back neck: ears chocolate brown. Whole under surface of the body white, 
barred with numerous parallel velvet black bars: a shade of rufous on the thighs and 
flanks. Under wings uniform pale brown, without spots. The female differs from the 
male in the whole upper surface of the body being destitute of any marked yellow or 
tawny bars, or black blotches ; and a superficial view leads to the belief of its being of 
a uniform rufous brown: but a closer inspection shows that each feather is crossed with 
thread-like zig-zag lines of black and tawny, composed of the minutest dots. Head 
brown ; throat and whole under surface dilute rufous light brown, faintest at the vent. 
Female without tubercles on the tarsi. Both sexes have the feathers of the thighs, 
vent, and under tail, long and downy. 
The varieties, in eleven specimens, consisted in adult male Birds being destitute of 
the black blotches on the upper surface, black bars on the tail, and black tips to the 
feathers on the back neck, but having the tawny bars. One adult male exactly re- 
sembled the female on the upper surface in the absence of distinct markings, but had 
a more rufous shade of plumage. A female had faint black bars on the breast. Had 
these Birds come to hand as isolated specimens, they would probably have been con- 
sidered distinct species. 
There is scarcely any difference in the size of the Birds, males or females. The mea- 
surements are, bill to the gape ~%, to =%,; depth at the nostrils {°, to 44 inch: tip of 
bill to end of tail 642; to 645 inches: tail 1,4, to 13 inch: tibie 15% to L4: 
tarsi =, to 22 inch: middle toe -8, inch, exclusive of nail of =%; inch; hind toe -%, to 
; inch, nail -3,. 
