802 Asiatic Society. [No. 128. 



Figs. 12 and 13 Edolius balicassius. 

 ,, 14 and 15 ,, Fingah. 

 „ 16 and 17 ,, macrocercus. 

 „ ]8andl9 „ coerulescens. 

 „ 20 and 21 ,, aneus. 



Appendix, No. 2. — Genus Turnix, Bonn. (1790) ; Tridactylus, Lacepede; Ortygis, 

 llliger; Hemipodius, Temminck : the Three-toed Quails of sportsmen. On a former 

 occasion (Vol. XI, p. 586), I referred a pair of specimens, male and female, of this 

 genus, to the Malayan T. atrogularis, Eyton, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 107 ; to which also I now 

 find that I should have assigned the Malayan female noticed at p. 204, and there wrongly 

 identified with T taigoor of Sykes, which latter is, however, included by Mr. Eyton in 

 his list of a collection of Malayan birds, wherein he has characterized the T. atrogu- 

 laris : but the similitude of some females of these species is so extremely close, that 

 it is almost (if not quite) impossible to discriminate them, even though ordinarily 

 they are distinguishable at a glance ; and now that the Singapore collection noticed 

 in the foregoing report has yielded undoubted examples of both sexes of T. atro- 

 gularis, it appears to me that of the pair first mentioned, the male pertains de- 

 cidedly to that species, while the female sent with it should perhaps be referred 

 to T. taigoor. 1 have now four continental eastern species before me, of which the males 

 of three would appear to be normally distinguished from the other sex by having the 

 throat and middle of the fore-neck and breast jetty-black; but in T. atrogularis 

 this black is very much broader than in T.pugnax and T. taigoor. Col. Sykes states, 

 indeed, that the last mentioned species is devoid of this colour, which is the case with 

 one specimen marked male in the Society's Museum, but another example before me 

 has fully as much of it as T. pugnax : again, of the latter species, remarks Mr. Jerdon, 

 " Col. Sykes and M. Temminck assert the identity of the plumage of both sexes [each 

 having the mark], and though 1 did not examine them when I shot several in com- 

 pany, they were always clothed alike" ; on the other hand, M. Drapiez states (Diet. 

 Class. d'Hist. Nat., Art. Turnix), — " La femelle [of T. Pugnax] a generalement les 

 couleursdu plumage beaucoup moins vives; la bande longitudinale dela gorge au lieu 

 d'etre noire est blanche avec un simple trait noir qui l'encadre; le milieu du ventre 

 est d'un blanc roussatre." Of the T. Luzoniensis, v. H. thoracicus, Tern., of the 

 Malayan Archipelago, Sir Stamford Raffles observes, that "the throat is black in the 

 males, generally whitish in the females" ; and I imagine that the fully adult males of 

 all these exhibit the black mark, while (in various degrees, according to the species,) 

 the young males, and a greater or less number of old in addition to the young females, 

 are devoid of it, some also presenting a mere trace of this marking, as stated by M. 

 Drapiez of the female of his pugnax : and it should be borne in mind that this is a genus 

 of which several species are so closely allied together, and withal so numerous in 

 species, that in cases of conflicting testimony there is generally much room for doubt 

 whether precisely the same species be intended by different writers. 



1 proceed to offer descriptions of all the oriental species which I know of. 



1. T. pugnax, apud Sykes and Jerdon ; perhaps Tetrao nigricollis and Madagascari- 

 ensis of the older authors, though it is unlikely that the very same species inhabits 

 Madagascar. Length six inches and a half; of wing three inches and a half; bill 

 to forehead (through the feathers) nearly five-eighths of an inch, and fully a quarter of 



