132 TURNICID^l. 



researches of Professor W. K. Parker (Trans. Z. Soc., vol. v.) 

 and Professor Huxley (P. Z. S., 1868, p. 303), it seems, 

 however, necessary to place them in a distinct order Hemi- 

 podii, which leads off towards the Cry'pturi, or Tinamous, of 

 South America. One very remarkable feature is that through- 

 out the genus the females are considerably larger than the 

 males. They live mostly in localities covered with scrub, in 

 which they skulk ; hiding themselves at the least appearance 

 of danger ; seldom taking wing, but running with great 

 speed ; and as a rule they are not migratory. 



Of the Andalusian Hemipode it may be said that even in 

 the countries it inhabits, it is extremely local, and has 

 never been proved to wander to any extent. In Europe it 

 occurs in the Alemtejo in the south of Portugal, and along 

 the southern coasts of Spain, especially where the ground 

 is covered with palmetto- scrub (Chamcerops humilis), as in 

 the neighbourhood of Gibraltar, and of Algesiras in the 

 direction of Vejer, and also about Malaga where the country 

 is of a similar character. It is not again met with in 

 Europe until Sicily is reached, when it is found in con- 

 siderable abundance along the south-western side of that 

 island, very seldom straggling even so far as the vicinity 

 of Palermo : never migrating, nor being known to visit 

 either Malta on the one side, or the mainland of Italy on 

 the other. It does not occur on any other island of the 

 Mediterranean, nor has it been proved to have straggled 

 even to the southern shores of France. In North Africa it 

 is found in suitable localities in Morocco from Mogador 

 to Tangiers, and thence through Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli 

 as far as the confines of Egypt, beyond which it cannot 

 be traced with certainty. It is in fact restricted to cer- 

 tain localities of a peculiar physical character in Southern 

 Europe and Northern Africa ; and few birds would be less 

 likely to have voluntarily visited the British Islands. In 

 India and Ceylon this species is represented by Turnix 

 taigoor, the 'Bush Quail' of sportsmen, and other members of 

 the genus are found throughout the Ethiopian and Oriental 

 regions down to Australia, where they are especially numerous. 



