206 lt.oyd's natural history. 



more rarely, two, though not unfrequently one or other of the 

 feet may have two spurs. 



I. THE RED SPUR-FOWL. GALLOPERDIX SPADICEA. 



La Perdrix rouge de Madagascar, Sonnerat, Voy. Ind. Orient. 



ii. p. 169 (1782). 

 Tetrao spadiceus, Gmel. S. N. i. pt. ii. p. 759 (1788). 

 Francolinus spadiceus, J. E. Gray, 111. Ind. Orn. ii. pi. 42, fig. 2 



(1834). 

 Polyplectro?i northia, J. E. Gray, 111. Ind. Orn. ii. pi. 43, fig. 1 



" (1834). 

 Ithaginis madagascariensis, G. R. Gray, List Brit. Mus. Gall. 



p. 32 (1844). 

 Galloperdix spadiceus, Blyth; Gould, B. Asia, vi. pi. 68 (1854) ; 

 Hume and Marshall, Game Birds of India, i. p. 247, pi. 

 (1878); Oates, ed. Hume's Nests and Eggs Ind. B. iii. 

 p. 423 (1890); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 

 261 (1893). 



Adult Male. — General colour brownish-chestnut or rufous- 

 chestnut, most of the feathers with pale greyish-brown margins j 

 croiun of the head dark broivn ; sides of the head and neck 

 greyish-brown. Total length, 14*6 inches; wing, 6*3 ; tail, 5*4; 

 tarsus, 17. 



Adult Female. — Differs in having the upper-parts irregularly 

 barred with black and buff, and the feathers of the neck and 

 under-parts tipped with black. 



Specimens from Mt. Abu and the dryer northern parts of 

 this bird's range, are paler and less strongly marked than ex- 

 amples from Southern India. 



Range. — Peninsula of India, more especially the western parts. 

 Madagascar [introduced]. 



As Mr. Hume very ably puts it : — " Certainly the distribution 

 of the Red Spur-Fowl is as yet very imperfectly understood, and 

 it inosculates so strangely with that of the Painted Spur-Fowl 

 (G. lunulata), as will be seen when I come to deal with that 



