TUBNICIDffl TURNIX 239 



the breast pale buff, each feather with a dark brown semicircular 

 spot, centre of the chest and under tail-coverts pale rusty, becoming 

 white on the abdomen ; central pair of tail-feathers elongated and 

 pointed. 



Iris very pale yellow ; bill bluish-horn with black tip ; feet pale 

 brownish-yellow. 



Length 5-25 ; wing 290; tail I'lO ; culmen -40 ; tarsus '80. 



The female is larger and more distinctly marked throughout ; 

 the rusty patch on the chest is markedly darker than that of the 

 male. Length 5'75 ; wing 3-3 ; tarsus -90. 



This bird is regarded by Grant as merely a subspecies of Turnix 

 sylvatica of Southern Europe and Northern Africa, from which it 

 only differs in its slightly smaller size. 



>';3 



Fig. 74. — Head of Turnix lepurana. x -j 



Distribution. — As in the case of so many other birds this Button 

 Quail was first obtained and described by Sir A. Smith, from the 

 neighbourhood of Kurrichane, now in the western Transvaal. 



It is widely distributed throughout the whole of South Africa, 

 except perhaps in the western half of Cape Colony. Beyond our 

 limits it extends northwards to the Gold Coast and to north-east 

 Africa and Aden. 



The following is a list of localities as recorded, but as there has 

 been a certain amount of confusion in regard to the identification of 

 the species of this genus, too much reliance must not be placed on 

 it, especially as regards the older records : Cape Colony — Port 

 Elizabeth (Eickard), East London (Wood), Morokweng, Mafeking 

 district (Bryden) ; Natal — Newcastle, August, and Pinetown (Butler, 

 Eeilden and Eeid), Alexandra County and Zululand (Woodward) ; 

 Orange Eiver Colony — Kroonstad, April (Symonds) ; Transvaal — 

 Potchefstroom, September (Ayres) ; Bechuanaland — near Palapye, 

 December (Ayres) ; Ehodesia — Matopos, near Bulawayo, October 

 (S. A. Mus.), near Salisbury (Marshall) ; German South-west Africa 



