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Family TITRNICID-ffil. 



Genus TURNIX. 



Tetrao apud Desfontaines, Mem. de l'Acad. Roy. des Sc. 1787, p. 500. 

 Perdix apud Latham, Ind. Orn. ii. p. 656 (1790). 

 Turnix, Bonnaterre, Tabl. Encycl. i. p. 5 (1791). 

 Ortygis apud Illiger, Prodromus, p. 242 (1811). 

 Eemipodius apud Temminck, Pig. et Gall. iii. p. 626 (1815). 



The Hemipodes differ so much from the other gallinaceous birds (standing, indeed, alone in 

 some respects) that they cannot be ranged with either the Phasianidse or the Tetraonidse, but 

 must be placed in a family by themselves. These birds inhabit the Ethiopian and Oriental 

 Regions, only one species being found in the Western Palsearctic Region. They are said to be 

 wild and shy in their general habits, frequent localities which are covered with bushes and low 

 trees, and are usually found amongst the dense thickets, whence it is difficult to flush them, as 

 they prefer to trust to running and hiding for safety. They are not migratory, but remain 

 in the same districts at all seasons of the year. They feed on seeds and other vegetable matter, 

 and, to some extent, also on insects of various kinds. Their nest is a mere depression in the 

 ground, lined with a few dry grasses, and situated in some well-concealed place, usually in a 

 dense thicket. They are said to lay only four eggs, which are greyish or buffy white, tolerably 

 closely marked with pale purplish grey and dark brown or purplish brown. 



Turnix sylvatica, the type of the genus, has the bill straight, rather slender, decurved 

 towards the tip ; nostrils lateral, longitudinal, bare, partly covered by a membrane ; wings 

 moderate, broad, the secondaries as long as the primaries, the second quill longest, the first 

 being scarcely shorter ; tail short, soft, decurved, the feathers as soft as those of the coverts, by 

 which the tail is concealed ; tarsus rather long, slender, scutellate ; toes moderate, slender, 

 compressed, the hind toe wanting ; claws small, curved, acute. 



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