RASORES. 177 



Burdckin ; always in localities where I could not examine 

 them; never in open ground. They abound in the scrubs 

 about the stations on the Dawson and Mackenzie." 



Head and crest very deep cinnamon-brown ; back of the 

 neck and all the under surface very dark grey ; back and wings 

 cinnamon-brown ; upper and under tail-coverts dark chestnut- 

 brown ; tail blackish brown ; irides generally dark brown, 

 but in some specimens Hght reddish brown ; bill reddish 

 brown, with yellow edges ; tarsi and feet bright orange, the 

 scales on the front of the tarsi from the fourth downwards 

 and the scales of the toes dark reddish brown. 



The size of this bird is about that of a hen Pheasant {Pha- 

 sianics colchicus). 



Family TURNICID^. 



In outward appearance the Ticrnices are seemingly allied to 

 the Quails and Partridges, but no real affinity exists between 

 them ; neither are they, in my opinion, allied to the Tinamous, 

 with which they have been associated. Those persons who 

 have seen much of these birds in a state of nature cannot 

 have failed to notice their many singular actions and manners, 

 while their mode of nidification, the number and colour of 

 their eggs, must have no less interested them. Although, of 

 course, they must be placed with the Gallinacece, we cannot 

 shut our eyes to their Plover-like economy. 



Genus TURNIX, Bonnaterre. 



However widely the members of this genus are dispersed, 

 inhabiting, as one or other of them do, most of the Indian 

 Islands, the Peninsula of India, Europe, and Africa, in 

 Australia we find the. species more numerous than elsewhere ; 

 they not only inhabit every part of the continent that has yet 

 been explored, but they extend their range to the islands 

 adjacent to the coast and even to Tasmania ; some species 



VOL. II. N 



