PERDICULA ASIATICA. 753 



I am again at a disadvantage in having no South-Indian specimens for comparison with my Ceylonese series. Judoing 

 from results obtained by comparing North-Indian and insular birds, I should say that the latter almost constituted 

 a darker race, the only specimen that I have seen approaching them as to depth of colouring being a male labelled 

 Behar in the British Museum. It measures 3'2 inches in the wing, and is nearly as dark above as my Eastern- 

 Province skins ; but there is more rufous on the forehead ; the throat is as dark as the latter, but the thighs and 

 under tail -coverts are darker ferruginous. A male from Futtehgurh, collected by Mr. Anderson, is altogether a paler 

 bird, for, in addition to the back being a pale grey -brown without a trace of mesial stripes, the rufous eye-stripe and 

 throat, and the barring of the chest, together with the black scapular-patches and the central stripes, are very much 

 lighter in colour ; and the bars, which are much closer than in my skins, are continued down to the belly instead of 

 the lower breast, beneath which part the Ceylon bird is only marked with transverse pencillings. The same rufous 

 feature on the forehead is observable that I have noticed in the Behar skin ; and this is caused by the eye-stripe 

 being much broader at its commencement near the nostril, and thus uniting across the forehead. Captain Beavan 

 gives the measurements of specimens shot at Morar as follows : — Length 6-0 to 6-5 inches ; wing 3-0 to 3-12 : tail 

 1-5 to 1-75 ; tarsus 0-87 to 0-93 ; bill from gape 0-5. 



I have not had the advantage of seeing any females from the continent, and therefore cannot speak on any points of 

 difference in their case. 



Perdicula argoondah, the Bock Bush-Quail, is recognized by the front of the crown and forehead being rufous, by the 

 feathers at the end of the rufous cap on the top of the head being tipped with black, and by the absence of stripes 

 on the scapulars and back ; there is a white stripe immediately over the eye and also above the red stripe, as in 

 P. asiatica ; the throat and face are pale sienna reddish. The upper surface is characterized by the barring of the 

 feathers ; but examples from various parts of India appear to vary in their markings. Two males from Futteh- 

 gurh are very handsomely clouded with black and rich buff on the back, scapulars, and tertials, which coloration 

 on the hind neck takes the form of bars. Another from Ahmedabad has but little of the black marking, the ground- 

 colour dappled grey and black, with whitish-buff bars on the hind neck and back ; the fore neck and breast are 

 white, closely barred with black, as in P. asiatica. 



I have followed Messrs. Gray and Hume in applying Latham's name to the present species, and not to the Eock Bush- 

 Quail, as did Jerdon. Latham's description, to which I have referred, apipears to apply sufficiently well. 



Distribution. — Layard first recorded the existence of what we may conclude was this species in Ceylon. 

 He speaks of it in his notes as follows : — "I have only seen one pair of these elegant little Partridges ; they 

 were caught alive at Cotta, near Colombo. I have an egg, which can only belong to this bird, also found in 

 the same locality." That the Jungle Bush-Quail should occur in the Western Province is a matter of surprise 

 to the author, for it is a species which belongs to the dry districts of the island, and has never been heard of, 

 to my knowledge, on the south-western side by any one, except on the occasion in question. It inhabits the 

 grassy jungles in the Park country, and those of the Wegatu and Medagam Patuwas, which constitute the 

 extensive district lying along the base of the Madulsima ranges. I found it very numerous in the months of 

 August and September between Kaloday and Bibile on the new Batticaloa road. I am not aware for certain 

 how far it extends towards the Hambantota district, but I believe it is found not far from Yala. I did not 

 see it in theWellaway Korale, nor in the neighbourhood of Kattregama. It is probably a bird of local distri- 

 bution, confining itself to strips and tracts of country throughout the Eastern Province, whose grassy glades are 

 combined with clumps of open forest, and not passing beyond barriers of heavy jungle ; in support of which 

 belief I may mention that it seems to be shut in by the belt of forest lying between Kaloday and the Maha-oya, 

 to the eastward of which I saw no trace of it. It was not met with anywhere above 1000 feet elevation. 



Jerdon writes : — "This pretty little Bush-Quail is extensively distributed throughout India, and is found 

 at all levels, from the sea-coast up to nearly 5000 feet of elevation. In the south of India it is chiefly found 

 in the more wooded districts in Malabar, Mysore, on the Eastern Ghats, and on the various hilhranges, being 

 rare in the low Carnatic and bare land. Col. Sykes found it on the higher ranges of the Western Ghats at 

 4000 feet, and it is found throughout Central India as far as the northern slopes of the Rajmehal, Monghyr, 

 and Mirzapore hills. It is not generally found on the north bank of the Ganges ; but Hodgson cites it as 

 found in the sub-Himalayan zone." Mr. Hume enumerates the localities whence he has obtained it as "Simla, 

 the Dhoon, Umballa, Mount Aboo, Anadra, at the foot of Aboo ; Etawah, Mirzapore ; Seoni, Central Provinces ; 

 Nursingpore, Raipur, valley of the Tapti, West Kandeish, Mahabaleshwar ; Kelsi, Bankok, and other localities 

 in the Southern Korkan ; Madras and Pothanore." C iptain Beavan records it as tolerably abundant in 



