196



Dr. A. G. Butlejk,



abbreviations one is familiar with, and others one can guess at ;

but the punctuation is the most perplexing item; where a full

stop is used instead of a comma, semi-colon, or colon; and

invariably followed by a capital letter : so that one paragraph is

broken up into a number of asthmatic gasps.


Lastly, there is a difficulty in the accounts of these

Hemipodes which is not peculiar to German writers, but occurs

sometimes in papers by our own countrymen ; that is—the

frequent abrupt change from the past tense to the present, and

back again, together with an occasional lack of definition in

stating whether the writer is referring to the parent or the

young ; so that it is necessary to decide the point by considering

the context.


In translating, I have thought it better not always to

follow these confusing lines, but represent the intention rather

than the exact wording of the authors from whose writings Dr.

Russ has compiled his account: indeed, a literal translation of

German as it stands, would sound strange to English ears ; the

order of the words, and the breaking up of the verbs being

essentially dissimilar to ours.


Somewhere about the year 1890, as far as my memory goes,

the late Mr. J. Abrahams received several examples of Turnix

nigricollis, which found their way into the hands of my former

colleague Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant. As he had no place ready

for them, he asked me to take care of these charming little

Hemipodes until he had constructed a suitable cage for them.


I had three of these for some weeks, and became

thoroughly enamoured of them : indeed it was with the deepest

regret that, after the completion of their cage, I had to restore

them to their owner.


It must have been somewhere about this date that the

German dealers received the consignments from which Lieut.

Hauth of Potsdam purchased his specimens, after which they

arrived in constantly increasing numbers in the German market,

until at length in 1895 Mr. Scliiffer of Cologne received no less

than forty pairs in one consignment.


First-Lieut. Hauth (says Russ) received his first pair in

February 1890. The Hemipodes, together with a pair of Painted



