2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATVRAL SIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII 



There are three known species of this genus, and it is further 

 necessary to sub-divide one of them, G. spadicea, into three races 

 which are easily distinguished from one another and of which each 

 occupies a well-defined ai*ea. 



I adopt Blanford's key as it stands, as no better can be made. 



Key to Species. 



A. Two or three spurs on each tarsus. 



a. Breast chiefly chestnut or rufous ...G. spadicea c? 



h. Breast buff" with black spots ... ...G. lunulata ,^ 



G. Breast chiefly white ... ... ...G. hicalcarata (^ 



B. Rarely more than one spur on one leg 



and two on the other. 



d. Breast chestnut with black tips to feathers G. spadicea 5 



e. Breast ochreous brown ... ... ...G. lunulata ^ 



f. Breast chestnut without black tips to 



feathers ... ... ... ...G. hicalcarata $ 



Galloperdix spadicea. 



Key to Sub-Species. 



A. General colour chestnut, crown brown ...G. s. spadicea (^ 



B. General colour very bright chestnut, crown 



blackish ... ... ... ... ...G.s.stewarti,^ 



G. General colour greyish chestnut paler every- 

 where ... ... ... ... ..,G. s. caurina (^ 



JD. Above grey with only faint rufous tinge ...G. s. spadicea 5 

 i?. Above rufescent grey and darker generally.G^. s. stewarti 5 

 F. Very pale with no rufous tinge ... ...G.s. caurina 5 



The Red Spur-Fowl was originally described from Madagascar 

 into which island it had apparently been introduced from India. 

 Gray (111. Ind. Orn. II., pi. 42) describes the bird as being the 

 " Kohee-tree of the Mahrattas ". His Pohjflectron northice is des- 

 cribed from a female, but no locality is given, and, finally, Blyth's 

 Galloperdix spadiceus is described as coming from Central and South 

 India. We may therefore fix the type locality as Ootacamund in 

 the Nilghiri Hills of South Central India. 



Galloperdix spadicea spadicea. 

 The Red Spur-Fowl. 



La Perdix rouge de Madagascar, — Sonnerat, Voy. Ind. Orient, ii., p. 169 

 (1782). 



Brown African Partridge, — Lath, Gen. Syn. pt. ii., p. 759 (1788) (Ma- 

 dagascar.) 



Tetrao spadiceus, — Gmel. Syst. Nat. 1, pt. ii., p. 759 (1788) (Madagascar) 



Perdix spadicea, — Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. Meth. 1, p. 208 (1791) (Madagas- 

 car ) ; Temm., Pig. et Gall, iii., p. 315, 719 (1815) (Madagascar), Less.; 

 Traite 'd' Orn., p. 504 (1831) (Senegal) ; Gray, in Griffith's ed. Cuv. iii., 

 p. 47 (1829) (Madagascar). 



