154 TUBXICID^. 



ii, p. 187, pi. ; Hume, Cat. no. 834 ; Reid, S. I. x,p. 64 ; Damson, 

 ibid. p. 412; Terry, ibid. p. 479; Taylor, ibid. p. 529; Barnes, 

 Birds Bom. p. 318. 



Lawd, Lawd-butai, H. ; Pedda daba-gundlu, Tel. 



Coloration. Male. Sides of crown blackish, the feathers with 

 light brown margins, mesial line of crown and forehead generally 

 pale ; supercilia and sides of head buff, with, in most specimens, 

 black tips to the feathers ; upper parts greyish brown, with irregular 

 black cross-bars and vermiculation, almost disappearing in old 

 birds, generally traces of buff tips and edgings remain ; most of 

 the wing-coverts (except the primary-coverts) buff, each with a 

 broad subterminal black spot ; quills and primary-coverts brown ; 

 outer primaries with narrow buff outer margins ; chin and throat 

 whitish, rest of lower parts buff, darker and brownish in the middle 

 of the breast ; feathers of sides of breast with subtermiual round 

 or crescentic black spots. 



Females have a broad ferruginous red collar on the back and 

 sides of the neck. 



Immature birds of both sexes have the upper parts tinged with 

 ferruginous red throughout ; there is no distinct collar in the young 

 female ; the black markings on the back are more distinct and 

 coarser, and the feathers have buff tips and edges, not to so great 

 an extent, however, as in T. pugnax and T. blanfordi. 



Bill, legs, feet, and claws orange-}^ellow ; iricles white; in males 

 the culmen and tip of the lower mandible are brown. 



Length of female 6-5 ; tail 1*25 ; wing 3'5 ; tarsus *9 ; bill 

 from gape *7. Length of male 6 ; wing 3*^5. 



Distribution. Throughout India, from the Himalayas, at an 

 elevation of about 4000 feet, to Travancore. To the eastward this 

 bird has been found in the Bhutan Duars, Tipperah, and the Naga 

 hills (I have examined Godwin-Austen's specimen from the latter), 

 but is replaced in Assam, Manipur, and Burma by T. blanfordi. 

 To the westward T. tanld is found, in the rainy season at all events, 

 in Cutch, Sind, and llajputana. 



Habits, <$fc. A solitary, silent, skulking bird, found usually in 

 grassy patches in jungle or on the borders of cultivation. It breeds 

 in July and August in Upper India, about April in Mysore, and 

 lays four eggs of the usual Turnix type, measuring about *8G 

 by -75. 



1385. Turnix albiventris. The Nicobar Button-Quail. 



Turnix albiventris, Hume, S. F. i, p. 310 ; ii, p. 281 ; iv, pp. 279, 293 ; 

 id. Cat. no. 834 ter ; Hume $ Marsh. Game B. ii, p. 199, pi. ; 

 Ogilvie Grant, Ibis, 1889, p. 467 ; id. Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 545. 



Coloration. Similar to that of T. tanlci, except that adults retain 

 much of the black and rufous barring and mottling on the dorsal 

 feathers ; the feathers on the sides of the crown are black with 

 rufous edges; and the collar in the female bird is much deeper 

 ferruginous, chestnut in fact. Immature birds are undistinguishable 



