188 GALLIFORMES CHAP. 
differ, the female is almost always the larger and brighter-plum- 
aged bird, the colours being black, brown, buff, chestnut, and 
white in varying admixture, and becoming less distinct with age. 
These small, solitary, and non-migratory forms often escape 
observation through their shyness, as they run strongly, and are 
flushed with the greatest difficulty, dropping quickly into cover 
after a short awkward flight; they frequent dry, grassy plains 
and localities covered with low trees or dense bushes, and utter 
a pleasant ringing or triple grating ery, with a mournful call-note 
at dawn and sunset. The food consists of seeds and insect- 
larvae; the well-concealed nest is little more than a hole lined 
with dry grass, though sometimes domed with similar materials ; 
the three to five eggs, shaped somewhat lke peg-tops, are buff 
or greyish, with spots of pale grey, purplish, or dark brown. 
Two broods are raised in a season, and it is a noticeable fact that 
the comparatively dull-hued male performs all, or nearly all, the 
duties of incubation, sitting very closely, and feigning lameness 
when surprised with the young, which run from the shell. The 
adults frequently fight, but the sex of the combatants is uncertain. 
The genus Zurnix includes some twenty “ Hemipodes,” the 
Bustard- or Button-Quails of Anglo-Indians, which range from 
South Europe, Arabia, and Africa to India, China, the Lin-Kiu 
Islands, and Formosa, as well as to Australia, New Britain, and 
New Caledonia. The female is described below, unless otherwise 
stated. 7 taigoor, reaching from India, Ceylon, and the Malay 
Peninsula to the Liu-Kiu Islands and Formosa, is brown above, 
with black bars and vermiculations, and buff margins to many 
of the feathers; the forehead and sides of the head and neck 
are white spotted with black, the mid-throat and chest are black, 
a whitish stripe divides the crown, and the under parts are 
buff, banded with black on the sides of the chest and on the 
breast. The whole chest is barred in the male, the centre of the 
throat being white. Darker birds apparently inhabit wetter 
districts.” 7. pugnax of Ceylon and the Great Sunda Islands 
is a rufous-naped race. 7. fasciata, with a rufous collar, but 
erey and black upper surface, inhabits the Philippines and 
Palawan; 7. rufilata, of Celebes, has the throat barred with black, 
1 Turnizx sylvatica is called ‘‘ Torillo” in Spain from its note, which resembles 
the subdued bellowing of a bull. 
* For the entire genus see Ogilvie Grant, Zbis, 1889, pp. 446-475. 
