22 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Tol. XXVII 



is this power that Layardsays that when listening to hirds confined 

 in his aviaries, he conld have declared that the calls proceeded from 

 everj^ part of" the ground rather than from the aviary itself. 



Ophrysia superciliosa. 



The Mountain Quail. 



Rollulus superciliosus, — Gray., Knowsl. Menag., Aves. p. 8, pi. xvi. (1846) 

 (India). 



Ophrysia superciliosa, — Bonap. Comp., Rend, xliii., p. 414 (1856) (noloc); 

 Hume, Str. Feath. vii., p. 4-34 (1878) (no loc); Hume & Marshall, Game-B. 

 Ind. ii., p. 105 pi, (1879) (Mussorie, Nainital) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Oat. Birds 

 B. M. xxii., p. 266 (1893) ; id., Handb. Game-B. 1, p. 212 (1896) ; Blanford, 

 Faun. Brit. Ind. iv., p. 105 (1898) ; Gates, Man. Game-B. 1, p. 121 (1898) ; 

 Comber., J. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc. xvi. p. 361 (1905). 



Ptilopackus {Ophrysia) superciliosa, — Gray, List Gallinee Brit. Mus., p. 4-5 

 (1867). 



Malacoturnix superciliosus, — Blyth, P. Z. S. 1867, p, 475 (Mussorie) ; 

 Gould, B. of Asia vii., pi. 8 (1868). 



Malacortyx super ciliaris, — Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 313. 



Coturnix [Ophrijsia) superciliosa, — Gray, Handl. B. ii. p. 269 (1870). 

 VJERNACULAR NAMES. None known. 



Description, — Adult Male. — Forehead and a broad siTpercilium 

 reaching to the nape white, a band above and below this snpercilium 

 black ; chin, throat, sides of the face and ripper ear-coverts black ; 

 lower ear-coverts and cheeks white, extended in a broken band down 

 the sides of the throat; a spot in front of the eye and another 

 behind it white ; crown greyish-brown with velvety black central 

 strige. Plnmage, generally, above and below dark clear slaty 

 olive-brown, each feather with black edges to the basal four-fifths 

 of each web except on the longest tail-coverts and tail feathers. 

 Under tail-coverts black with broad white terminal bars. 



The wings are rather browner and lighter than the rest of the 

 upper plumage, and the primaries are vermiculated with pale dull 

 bu.ff on the basal halves of the outer webs. 



Colours of Soft Parts. — ^" Bill coral red; legs and feet dull red or 

 dusky red" (Hutton). 



Measurements. — " Length 10 inches" (Hutton). 



Two specimens in the British Museum. Wings, 86 mm. (in moult), 

 and 95 mm. ; tails, 80 and 82 mm. ; tarsus, 29 mm. ; bill from front 

 11-5 mm., and from gape 13*5 mm. two other specimens not quite 

 adult have wings of 85 and 86 mm. 



Adult Female. — Above cinnamon brown, the centre of the crown 

 with practically no markings, nape and neck with broad black 

 streaks changing to triangular black spots on the back, scapulars,, 

 rump and upper tail-coverts which are bordered with fulvous, more 

 especially on the scapulars. A white spot both in front and behind 

 the eye, and a small white eyebrow, A broad supercilium, ear-cov- 

 erts and sides of the head vinaceous-brown, merging into albescent 



