RAIL-TRIBE. 445 
position open. Like the sand-grouse and rails, they lay double-spotted eggs, quite 
different from those laid by any of the true game-birds; but the young are similarly 
covered with down, and able to run soon after they are hatched. Among the most 
singular features of this group it may be noticed that the females are always 
larger and more brightly coloured than the males; while the latter undertake all 
the cares of meubating the eggs and tending the young. In the typical genus 
(Turnix), which contains all the forms but one, the first toe is entirely absent, but 
in the Australian collared hemipode (Pedionomus torquatus) a small first toe is 
present. The twenty-one members of the typical genus are distributed over Africa, 
Madagascar, and Arabia, and also range through the Indo-Malayan countries to 
Australia; while one species, the Andalusian hemipode (7. sylvatica), inhabits 
South Europe. No less than four of these species are found in India, and as their 
habits have been more studied than elsewhere, we may take the Indian bustard- 
quail (7. taigur) as typical of the group. This bird, besides being found all over 
India, has a wide range throughout Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Siam, and South 
China to Formosa and the Liu-kiu Islands. As might be expected, the plumage 
of so widely-spread a species shows considerable climatic variation, examples from 
the dry plains of India having the prevailing colour of the upper-parts rufous: 
whereas in specimens from the Malay Peninsula, with its heavy rainfall, the general 
tone is greyish brown. In both sexes the upper-parts are barred and marked with 
black, many of the feathers being margined on the sides with whitish buff; while 
the chest and breast are buff barred with black, and the under-parts rusty buff. 
The female, besides being much larger, has the middle of the throat and chest deep 
black, while in the male these parts are white with narrow black bars. Mr. Hume 
writes that “scerub-jungle, intermixed with patches of moderately high grass on 
dry ground, is perhaps its natural home ; but it may be met with anywhere in low 
bush-jungle and on the skirts of forests, and in inhabited districts greatly affects 
gardens, grass-preserves, and similar enclosures. It strays into stubbles and low 
crops in the mornings and evenings, even remaining in these at times throughout 
the day, but more generally retreating during the hotter noontide hours to the 
cover of some thorny bush or patch of grass upon the margins.” 
THE RAIL-TRIBE. 
Order FULICARLE. 
This distinct order includes but two families, namely the rails, to which the 
great bulk of the species belong, and the fin-feet including only a few peculiar 
forms with grebe-like feet, and no after-shafts to the contour-feathers. Agreeing 
with the game-birds in the structure of their palate, these birds are most nearly 
allied to the cranes on the one hand,—an intermediate type being found in the 
American courlan, while they are also more distantly related through the hemi- 
podes to the true game-birds. They probably represent one of the older and more 
generalised types of birds. An interesting point is the large number of species 
which, from disuse of their wings, have lost the power of flight, several of these 
having become extinct within the memory of man; while with many others. 
