456 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant on the Genus Turnix. 



very rufous. I find the specimen in question to be a 

 very normally coloured male of the " taigoor " type, and 

 exactly like dozens of other male specimens from the dry 

 and intermediate zones of India ; while the adult female 

 from Loo Choo likewise cannot be distinguished from adult 

 females from the southern parts of the Indian Peninsula. 

 At Takow, in the south of the island of Formosa, Mr. Swinhoe 

 procured a number of examples of this species of the brown 

 or " plumbipes" type, which he first called T. ocellata, probably 

 meaning T. fasciata, but afterwards described as a new 

 species under the name of T. roslrata, which he considered 

 distinct from the Malaccan bird. This is, however, not the 

 case ; for I find in our Indo-Malayan series the exact coun- 

 terparts of all his Formosan specimens. The name rostrata 

 also means nothing; for the bill, which is subject to great 

 variation in size according to age and sex, is no larger in the 

 largest of his female specimens than that of T. taigoor. 



No doubt this species is distributed throughout S. China 

 in favourable localities and will be brought to bag and re- 

 corded sooner or later, though its skulking habits render it 

 difiicult to procure ; but no example has been recorded, nor 

 have we any representatives to indicate its range till we reach 

 Siam. From this country we have in the Museum two 

 specimens, a female and a male, of the ordinary " plumbipes " 

 type of coloration, but both very old birds with the markings 

 on the upper surface nearly obsolete. The male, collected 

 by Mr. L. Layard at Nahconchaisee on June 2nd, 1872, was 

 sitting on four eggs and has been sexed by the collector as 

 " female, breeding-plumage ; '' but the plumage and other 

 circumstances show that this is incorrect. 



From Singapore to Kaukaryit on the Sal ween River, a 

 district where rain is abundant, we have a very large and 

 uniform series of the ^' plumbipes " type with only slight varia- 

 tion in the tone of colour of the upper surface ; and the few 



the ocellata (?) group (meaning eitlier T. fasciata or T. taif/oor), unless lie 

 was comparing it with T. hlanforili, which is the commou species of 

 China and with which, of course, it has uothiujj' to do. 



