120 



Bom. p. 313 ; Oates in Hume's N. $ E. iii, p. 441 ; Ogilvie Grant, 

 Cat. . M. xxii, p. 200. 



Loiva, H. arid Mahr. ; Lawunka, Tel. ; Sinkadeh, Tarn. ; Kemp-lowyu, 

 Can. (Mysore). 



Coloration. Adult males have the upper plumage brown with 

 rather broad buff cross-bars, slightly edged with black ; forehead, 

 sinciput, supercilia, cheeks, chin, and throat dull brick-red, around 

 the eye whitish, but no white superciliary band ; tail and quills 

 barred on outer web, and generally barred or mottled on inner 

 web with buff ; breast and abdomeif barred black and white, the 

 bars broader than in P. asiatica ; lower abdomen aud lower tail- 

 coverts pale rufescent. 



Adult females have the upper parts nearly uniform vinaceous 

 brown, finely vermiculated in parts, and often with some remains 

 of buff bars posteriorly ; quills mottled with rufous and barred 

 with the same on the outer webs ; lower parts brownish vinaceous ; 

 chin, lower abdomen, and lower tail-coverts whitish. 



Younger birds of both sexes much resemble the young of 

 P. asiatica ; above, the upper parts are brown tinged with rufous, 

 much verniiculated with buff and blotched with black, especially 

 on the scapulars and tertiaries ; there are a few white shaft-stripes 

 on the back. 



Upper mandible black, lower paler ; irides brown to light red ; 

 legs red (Hume). 



Length 7; tail 1-8 ; wing 3'3 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from gape -6. 



Distribution. The range of this species is less than that of the 

 preceding, for though P. argunda extends from the base of the 

 Himalayas in the JST.W. Provinces and the Punjab to near Cape 

 Cornorin, and west as far as Lahore, Jodhpore, Kattiawar, and 

 Cutch, it is not known to occur in the Eastern Central Provinces, 

 Orissa, or Bengal, nor along the Western Ghats, nor on the low 

 ground near the Malabar coast, nor yet in Ceylon. 



Habits, fyc. This Bush-Quail keeps to much more open and drier 

 country than its congener; it avoids hills, forests, and dense 

 vegetation, and is chiefly found in sandy or rocky ground with 

 small scattered bushes. Otherwise its habits are the same as those 

 of the last species. It breeds, according to Hurne, from August 

 to September, and again in March ; and the nest and eggs are 

 similar to those of P. asiatica. 



Genus MICROPERDIX, Gould, 1862. 



This is an ally of Perdicula, from which, however, it differs in 

 several details of structure. There is no spur oti the tarsus in 

 either sex ; the bill is much longer and less high ; the tail is of 10 

 feathers only, and rather more than half as long as the wing ; and 

 the wing is shorter and more rounded, the 4th, 5th, and 6th quills 

 being longest and subequal, and the 1st equal to the 10th. 



The species resemble Perdicula in size and habits, and the typical 



