TURXICID/E. 



the breast are black ; feathers of the sides of the head and of the 

 median coronal band distinctly edged with black. Otherwise like 

 the male. 



Young birds show more markings, and especially more buff 

 longitudinal lines, on the upper surface. 



Bill dark slaty ; irides pale yellow ; legs plumbeous (Jerdon). 



Length of male 6; tail 1-1; wing 3-2; tarsus -9; bill from 

 gape -65. Length of female 6-5 ; tail 1'3 ; wing 3'5. 



By Jerdon and Hume the Himalayan and Burmese race of this 

 Hemipode was separated as T. oceUatus or T. plumbipes from the 

 Indian form, T. taigoor. The latter" is much more rufous, the 

 former greyer and darker. Birds from Sikhim are especially dark 

 and rather large. The rufous birds, too, appear to retain the buff 

 lines and spots on the back more than the dark Eastern specimens. 

 Mr. Ogilvie Grant, who, like Blyth, unites the two, has shown 

 that the dark birds are found in localities where the rainfall is 

 heavy, but some rufous specimens are from the South Konkan. 

 Undoubtedly, however, the two pass completely into each 

 other some Burmese specimens are identical with Indian ; and 

 although Mr. Grant keeps certain Japanese and Ceylonese skins as 

 a distinct subspecies called T. pugnax, on account of a tendency to 

 a rufous collar in the female, the difference appears of no specific 

 importance, for the Ceyloneso birds are very similar to some from 

 8. India. I follow Blyth and unite all these races. The true 

 T. ocellata proves to be a Philippine species. 



Distribution. Throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma, except on 

 the higher hills, in dense forests, and in deserts. This species has 

 not been observed in Sind or the Punjab, though it occurs in 

 Cutch and Rajputana. It ascends the Eastern Himalayas to 

 about 7000 feet, but it has not been met with at so great an 

 elevation to the westward, and in Southern India and Ceylon it 

 keeps chiefly to the plains and lower hills. Beyond Indian limits 

 it ranges to the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Siam, Southern 

 China, Formosa, and the Loo-choo Islands. 



Habits, <Sfc. The principal habits have been described under the 

 genus. The breeding-season in most parts of India and Burma is 

 in the rainy season, but in Ceylon from February to May, according 

 to Legge. The hollow in the ground used as a nest is sometimes 

 without lining, sometimes lined and covered above with a slight 

 dome of dry grass, and with a lateral entrance. The eggs, four 

 (sometimes more) in number, are greyish striped with reddish, and 

 usually blotched with brown, and measure about '94 by '78. 



1383. Turnix dussumieri. The Little Button-Quail. 



Hemipodius dussumieri, Temm. PL Col pi. 454, fig. 2 (1828). 

 Uemipodius sykesi, Smith, III. Zool. S. Afr.ii, notes to pi, 10 (1838). 

 Turnix dussumieri, Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 161 ; Hume, S. F. i, p. 227 ; 



