1 88 GALLIFORMES 



CHAP. 



differ, the female is almost always the larger and brighter-plum- 

 aged bird, the colours being black, brown, buff, chestnut, and 

 white in varying admixture, and becoming less distinct with age. 



These small, solitary, and non-migratory forms often escape 

 observation through their shyness, as tliey run strongly, and are 

 Hushed with the greatest difficulty, dropping quickly into cover 

 after a short awkward flight ; they frequent dry, grassy plains 

 and localities covered with low trees or dense bushes, and utter 

 a pleasant ringing or triple grating cry, with a mournful call-note 

 at dawn and sunset.-^ The food consists of seeds and insect- 

 larvae ; the well-concealed nest is little more than a hole lined 

 with dry grass, though sometimes domed with similar materials ; 

 the three to five eggs, shaped somewhat like peg-tops, are buff 

 or greyish, with spots of pale grey, purplish, or dark brown. 

 Two broods are raised in a season, and it is a noticeable fact that 

 the comparatively duU-hued male performs all, or nearly all, the 

 duties of incubation, sitting very closely, and feigning lameness 

 when surprised with the young, which run from the shell. The 

 adults frequently fight, but the sex of the combatants is uncertain. 



The genus Turnix includes some twenty " Hemipodes," the 

 Bustard- or Button-Quails of Anglo-Indians, which range from 

 South Europe, Arabia, and Africa to India, China, the Liu-Kiu 

 Islands, and Formosa, as well as to Australia, New Britain, and 

 New Caledonia. The female is described below, unless otherwise 

 stated. T. taigoor, reaching from India, Ceylon, and the Malay 

 Peninsula to the Liu-Kiu Islands and Formosa, is brown above, 

 with black bars and vermiculations, and buff margins to many 

 of the feathers ; the forehead and sides of the head and neck 

 are wdiite spotted with black, the mid-throat and chest are black, 

 a whitish stripe divides the crown, and the under parts are 

 buff, banded with black on the sides of the chest and on the 

 breast. The whole chest is barred in the male, the centre of the 

 throat being white. Darker birds apparently inhabit wetter 

 districts.^ T. imgnax of Ceylon and the Great Sunda Islands 

 is a rufous-naped race. T. fasciata, with a rufous collar, but 

 grey and black upper surface, inhabits the Philippines and 

 Palawan ; T. rufilata, of Celebes, has the throat barred with black, 



1 Turnix sylvatica is called "Torillo" in Spain from its note, which resembles 

 the subdued bellowing of a bull. 



- For the entire genus see Ogilvie Grant, Ihis, 1889, pp. 446-475. 



