of Birds from North China. 375 



male is small and objects to the " noble art." By their bril- 

 liant colouring and fruity yellow bills and legs I saw that I 

 had got a species I had not met before. In my " Revised 

 Catalogue of the Birds of China " (P. Z. S. 1871) I noted that 

 I had made a mistake in identifying our South-China bird 

 with Turnix maculosa, Temm., and gave it the name Hemi- 

 podius viciarius. This species I have procured as far north 

 as Shanghai. In Pere David's " Catalogue des Oiseaux a, 

 Pe'kin" (Nouv. Arch, du Museum d'Hist. Nat. de Paris, 

 tome iii. 1867) the Pekin species is marked as T. maculosa, 

 Temm. This may be in copy of my first error, or on the 

 belief that it really is the same as Temminck's bird, which was 

 supposed to be from New Holland. I believe the present 

 species to be distinct, and propose to distinguish it as 



Hemipodius chrysostomus, sp. nov. 



The female in full plumage has the entire face, breast, 

 flanks, and vent yellowish buff, much deeper and strongly 

 tinged with rust-colour on a central patch down the middle of 

 the breast, with black spots more or less hidden on the sides 

 of the breast. Feathers on the top of the head black, bordered 

 with cream- and rust-colour, with a streak of cream-colour 

 down centre of head. Broad half-collar on hind neck fine 

 rust-colour, dotted with light reddish. Back and rump varie- 

 gated with yellowish^grey, cream-colour, black, and bright 

 rust-colour. Wing-coverts yellowish buff, greyish near bend 

 and edge of wing, with black spots ; quills light hair-brown, 

 the first two primaries being edged with yellowish, the rest 

 with brownish, mottled with a deeper brown. Axillaries light 

 brownish buff. Tail-feathers light brown, obscurely mottled 

 with blackish somewhat in the form of bars. 



The male in plumage resembles the females not fully deve- 

 loped in having the throat whitish, the underparts less tinged 

 with buff, with no rust-colour on the pectoral median patch, 

 in having the wing-coverts more or less brownish, with only 

 a little buff, and in having only a little of the rich mottling 

 and spots on the upper parts, with but a slight indication of 

 the nuchal half-collar. He differs, however, from them in 

 having smaller and more numerous spots on the sides of the 

 breast. 



I took the following note on view of two fresh specimens, 

 which afterwards proved on dissection to be females : — 



Length 6*75. Wing 3 "8, rounded ; first, second, and third 

 quills nearly equal and longest, fourth a little shorter ; wing 

 falls 0*35 short of tail, and is 0*4 longer than tertiaries. Tail 

 of eight soft graduated feathers, 1*35 long. Iris cream- white ; 



