NOTES. 157 



"The black bars on the lower surface of the Jungle Bush 

 Quail are far more regular and better marked than those of the 

 Rock Bush Quail. Indeed, in this latter species, it is only on 

 the neck and breast that they are at all regular and continuous, 

 ■while in the Jungle Bush Quail they are regular and continu- 

 ous almost to the vent. 



ie In the females of the Jungle Bush Quail there is only a trace 

 of the rictal stripe. The young males resemble the females, 

 but have the rictal stripe well marked. At first the breast and 

 abdomen is the same dull rufous, faintly suffused with grey as 

 in the adult female ; then the tips of some of the feathers be- 

 come yellowish, then a dusky line appears above this tip, then 

 the tip becomes whiter, the line becomes a dark bar, and above 

 this a pale bar bounded by a dark line begins to show ; lastly, 

 the tips and bars become nearly pure white and blackish brown, 

 the rufous disappears entirely, except about the vent, thigh- 

 coverts, and lower tail-coverts. These parts, I may note, are 

 always rufous in the Jungle Bush Quail, and a kind of pale 

 dingy sandy hue in the Rock Bush Quail. I have also re- 

 marked that in this latter species there are almost invariably 

 more or less distinct bars on the lower tail-coverts, whereas in 

 the former species these are (in all the specimens I have seen) 

 entirely without any trace of bars." 



I may add that in one stage of the quite young 

 Jungle Bush Quail the feathers of the cheeks, of the 

 throat, sides of the breast and interscapulary region are very 

 conspicuously white shafted — a feature which I have failed to 

 observe in any of my specimens of the Rock Bush Quail. 



Again, as a general rule, the tertiaries and scapulars in the 

 Jungle Bush Quail are very conspicuously blotched with black, 

 and also usually have conspicuous yellowish white to reddish 

 buff shaft stripes, both of which are almost entirely wanting 

 or at most are but feebly reproduced in the Rock Bush Quail. 

 But too much stress must not be laid upon this, because it only 

 really suffices to separate nearly adult up to middle-aged birds. 

 Since in very old specimens of the Jungle Bush Quail these 

 blotches almost entirely disappear, while in quite young birds 

 of the Rock Bush Quail these blotches are pretty conspicuous, 

 though not nearly so much so as in the corresponding stage of 

 the Jungle Bush Quail. 



Both these species have been figured by Sykes, Tr. Z. S., Vol. 

 II., pi. 2 and 3. They are not well figured, quite the contrar}', 

 but still they are recognizable, and Jerdon was quite right in 

 assigning Coturnix pentah, Sykes, to the Jungle Bush Quail, 

 and Coturnix argoondah, Sykes, to the Rock Bush Quail, 

 but when it came to Latham's name, Jerdon was I think in error. 



