158 NOTES. 



Carefully comparing Latham's description of his Asiatic Part- 

 ridge, (Perdix asiaticus,) especially the passage "through the 

 eye and behind brown, beneath it a patch of fringed whitish 

 feathers, rufous in the middle/' there can be no doubt I think 

 that this name of Latham's asiatica was applied to the Jungle 

 Bush Quail. 



On the other hand Latham's name cambaiensis is either so bad 

 a description as to be worthy only of rejection, or else applies 

 to some non-Indian species. 



It is true that Latham says, t{ inhabits India about Guzerat, 

 a specimen in the British museum ; " but his description, which 

 is as follows, will apply to no Indian bird ; it may apply to 

 some Malayan bird. Mr. Gray, Hand List No. 9715, records 

 a specimen from Malacca, but it certainly does not apply to 

 either of our Indian species, and so far as they are concerned 

 must be rejected. 



The description runs :— 



" Length, 6 inches ; bill short, stout, pale, tipped dusky ; body 

 yellowish, rufous above, paler beneath, clouded with a deeper 

 color, inclining to brown ; wing-coverts tipped with a paler 

 rufous, giving the appearance of two bands across the wings ; 

 legs yellow, hind toe without a claw." 



Now neither of our species at any age exhibit an appearance 

 of bands across the wing, and in neither is the hind toe desti- 

 tute of a claw, nor indeed is any part of the description reason- 

 ably applicable. 



It is quite impossible for me to work out the correct syno- 

 nymy of these species, but I can say for certain that rubicola, 

 Hodgson, is the Jungle Bush Quail. What rubiginosa, G. R. 

 Gray, and rubiginosa, Val., or again Cryptonyx rufus of TemmincK 

 may be, I am unable to determine not having the works in 

 which these species are described at hand to refer to, 



Mr. Gould, B. of A., XV., pi. 12 and 13, gives us some 

 beautiful figures of what he supposes to be the two species 

 asiatica, the Jungle Bush Quail, and argoondah, the Rock Bush 

 Quail ; but all his figures really represent one species only, viz., 

 the Jungle Bush Quail, and what he supposes to be an adult 

 female of argoondah, is merely the young of the Jungle Bush 

 Quail before the chestnut of the throat has shown out. 



So far as I can make out, the names of the birds should 

 stand as follows :— 



No. 826 of Jerdon. The Jungle Bush Quail. 



Perdicula asiatica, Latham, Ind. Orn. II., 649, 1790 ; 



Gen. Syn. Sup., II., 278 ; Gen. Hist., VIII., 281, 1823. 

 pentah, Sykes. Tr. Z. S., II., 19, pi. 3, 1835. 



