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



he describes as the adult female, together with the speci- 

 men figured by MM. Milne-Edwards and Grandidier as the 

 adult male, are both only immature examples, and that the 

 plumage in both sexes is in reality similar or almost exactly so. 

 Since writing the above, I have, through the kindness of 

 Professor Newton and Mr. Biittikofer, been able to examine 

 six additional specimens which are said to have been sexcd by 

 reliable collectors. The three lent me by Mr. Biittikofer, 

 which were collected by J. Audebert, and are said to be an 

 adult male and female and a young male, agree exactly with 

 the ideas of MM. Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, in their 

 ' Histoire de Madagascar, Oiseaux ' ; while the other three 

 sent by Professor Newton (an adult male and female and 

 an immature bird collected by Sir Edward Newton and Mr. 

 Caldwell) show that the sexes are identical. The male was 

 obtained and sexed by Sir Edward Newton. I therefore 

 consider myself justified, from these facts, in believing that 

 the sexes in this species are exactly similar, and that we find 

 in Madagascar this ancestral species in which the plumage 

 of the sexes has remained alike. 



19. Turnix melanogaster (Gould). (Woodcut, p. 448, 

 fig.2i.) 



(1837.) Hemipodius melanogaster, Gould, P. Z. S. 1837, 

 p. 7. 



(1848.) Hemipodius melanogaster, Gould, Birds of Austr. 

 V. pL 81. 



Of this species Mr. Gould says : " I regret that, never 

 having seen this species in a state of nature, I am unable to 

 render any account of its habits and economy. , . . Judging 

 from analogy, I presume that the sexes present little or no 

 difi'erence in their markings .... in all probability the female 

 will be found to exceed the male " (in size). 



Judging from analogy and the specimens before me, I 

 should arrive at an exactly opposite conclusion ; but unfor- 

 tunately not one of our series is sexed, and I can therefore 

 only guess that the larger birds (wing 4*4) with black fore- 

 heads, chins and throats, and black breasts with terminal 



I 



