282 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



varying from 3 3 to 3 '45 ; our present bird differs from all 

 these specimens, is much brighter colored, and has the wings 

 in the male 3'0 and in the female 3* 12. The female too is 

 conspicuous by its very broad uniform unspotted rufous collar; 

 it is certainly neither rufescens of Wallace nor rufilata of Wal- 

 lace ; the latter by the way belonging to a totally different 

 group it seems to me, and being nearer to pugnax, occellata, 

 and taigoor, than to the jouclera or tanki sub-divisiou. I note 

 here that Jerdon, who describes joudera under the name of 

 Dussumieri, gives the wing of this species as only 2*75; but 

 in none of my specimens, which are from Kumaon on the 

 borders of Nipal, Tipperah, and Raipoor, are the wings less 

 than 3*3, and in three out of the five they are 3 - 4 and upwards. 



There are no birds of which it is so excessively difficult to 

 obtain specimens as of these button quails. Of the true 

 Turnix Dussumieri (described by Jerdon as T. Sykesii), the 

 smallest button quail, I have received very many specimens, 

 but of these jouderas I have found it almost impossible to pro- 

 cure specimens. Moreover the plumage in this species is exces- 

 sively variable, not merely according to sex, but as far as 

 I can judge according to age and season likewise, hence though 

 these present birds differ both in size, and coloring from any 

 specimens of joudera that I possess or have seen I am not 

 prepared to assert that they really are distinct and retain them 

 for the present under Hodgson's name in preference to my own. 



The following are dimensions and description of a pair of 

 apparently perfect adults : — 



Male. — Length, 6; expanse, 10-25; wing, 3'0; tail, from 

 vent, 1-25; tarsus, 09; bill, from gape, 0'65 ; weight, 1-4 ozs. 



Female. — Length, 6 - 5 ; expanse, 10*5; wing, 3 # 12; tail, from 

 vent, 1-4; tarsus, 09; bill, from gape, 0-7; weight, 1*75 ozs. 



In both the irides are white; in the male the legs and feet are 

 yellow tinged orange or chrome yellow ; the upper mandible 

 horny brown, yellowish at the gape; the lower mandible yellow, 

 tipped horny. In the female the legs and feet are pale yel- 

 low ; the entire bill yellow the extreme tips only of the twa 

 mandibles being- brownish. 



In the male the lores and a circle round the eye are pale 

 fulvous ; the point of the forehead and two broad stripes run- 

 ning over the crown down to the nape are black, each feather 

 narrowly margined with bright chesnut. These stripes are 

 divided by a narrow line beginniug opposite the centre of the 

 eyes, miugled fulvous white and very pale rufescent ; the ear- 

 coverts are uuspotted fulvous ; the sides of the neck, imme- 



