470 Mr. W. R. Ogil vie- Grant on the Genus Turnix. 



(1831.) Ortijgis ocellata, Meyer, Nov. Act. Acad. C. L.-C. 

 Nat. Curios, xvi. Suppl. Primum, p. 101, pi. 17. 



This fine species is one of the largest members of the genus 

 Turnix, aud forms a group by itself, characterized by the 

 unique coloration of the plumage and by the very long upper 

 tail-coverts, which entirely conceal the true tail. 



T. ocellata appears to have been very much confused by 

 various authors with T. fasciata and other species of the 

 taigoor group. T. fasciata occurs in the same locality, but, 

 as already shown, belongs to the T. taigoor group, to which 

 the present species is not very nearly allied, although the 

 chin and throat in the old adult female become almost black. 

 (See Blyth, Ibis, 1865, p. 34; and Swinhoe, Ibis, 1863, p. 398; 

 1865, p. 543; 1866, p. 404, &c., &c.) 



Our series contains only specimens that are adult or nearly 

 so, and consequently does not allow of my offering very exact 

 information as to the changes in plumage in this species ; but 

 •from the remains of the young plumage still visible in the 

 breasts of some of the less mature examples, the young of both 

 sexes would appear to have the breast buff, with spots and 

 marks of black near the ends of the feathers. 



In older examples of both sexes the throat is white spotted 

 with black (as in the adult male), and the breast rufous, 

 sometimes spotted with black, in males at least ; the upper 

 surface is greenish brown mixed with pale rufous, and most of 

 the feathers of the back and scapulars are narrowly edged with 

 whitish and a rufous nuchal collar is more or less developed. 

 The feathers of the crown are black edged with brown, and the 

 interorbital and superciliary stripes are whitish. 



As the female becomes quite adult, the black on the chin 

 and throat gradually increases till these parts become nearly 

 black, and the breast becomes a fine bright uniform rufous 

 chestnut. On the upper surface the tone becomes more 

 uniform and the rufous nuchal collar more marked, while 

 the white margins to the feathers of the back and scapulars 

 disappear and the black ocelli on the wing-coverts are reduced 

 in number and size, being smaller and fewer than in the adult 

 male. "Wing 4'2 ca. 



