IHREE-TOED OR BUSTARD-QUAILS. 263 
In the skull the maxillo-palatine bones are not coalesced 
with one another, nor with the vomer (see vol. i. p. 1, fig. 1) ; 
the nasals are schizorhinal (fig. 2). The vertebre are peculiar 
in shape, and of the form known as heteroccelous. There isa 
deep notch on each side of the posterior margin of the 
sternum, extending for about two-thirds of its entire length, 
and the well-developed episternal process is incompletely per- 
forated to receive the bases of the coracoid bones, which are 
only separated by a thin bony septum. 
Bill like that of the Ga//ine, but often not so strongly 
developed. 
Feet generally with three toes only, the hind toe, or hallux, 
being absent, except in Fedionomus, which possess a rudimen- 
tary hind toe. 
Oil-gland tufted. 
Tail very short, composed of soft feathers scarcely to be 
distinguished from the longer upper tail-coverts. 
The first secondary quill not much shorter than the second, 
and the fifth present. 
The young hatched covered with down, and able torun soon 
after they are hatched. 
Eggs double-spotted, and three to five in number. 
-One of the great peculiarities of this group is the fact that 
the female is always larger and generally more handsomely 
marked than the male, and the latter in the majority of species, 
probably in all, incubates the eggs and tends the young. 
FAMILY TURNICIDA. 
THREE-TOED OR BUSTARD-QUAILS. GENUS TURNIX. 
Turnix, Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. Méth. i. pp. Ixxxii. 5 (1890). 
Type, Z. sylvatica (Desf.). 
Hind toe, or hallux, absent. 
In all the birds of this genus there is a cee tendency to 
uniformity of coloration in the plumage of the upper surface of 
