ANDALUSrAN HE3IIP0DE. 113 



distance, hardly sufficient for a sportsman to take his aim, 

 and is hardly ever seen a second time on the wing, but squats 

 so close to the ground, that it requires care not to tread it to 

 death. The Hemipode also runs very fast, by which means it 

 escapes pursuit very generally. 



The Hemipode measures nearly six inches in length. The 

 beak and legs are yellowish-brown ; the iris hazel. The top of 

 the head, nape, back, wing-coverts, rump, and tail-coverts, 

 are of a yellowish dusky brown. The feathers, in two rows 

 on the top of the head, are dusky, broadly edged with pale 

 yellowish-brown, and tipped with rufous, thus forming a light- 

 coloured central line from the base of the upper mandible to 

 the nape of the neck, right and left of which is a band of 

 dusky black and rufous. The sides of the face are soiled buff- 

 colour, tipped with dusky. Chin and belly pale yellow, al- 

 most white : from the gape on each side down the breast 

 runs a broad band of rich orange buff- colour, which unite on 

 the chest, where the colour is concentrated and deepest, and 

 spreading over the sides and flanks, unite again at the vent, 

 and terminate over the under tail-coverts. The feathering of 

 the back and all the upper parts is finely and transversely 

 pencilled with black. The centres of the feathers on the man- 

 tle are richly stained with rufous, those of the back largely 

 spotted with the same. On the wings are several large round 

 black spots, as represented in our Plate. The sides of the 

 neck, breast, and flanks are also spotted with black, owing 

 to the feathers being ornamented thus towards their tips, and 

 broadly edged with the paler colours before mentioned. Quills 

 dusky, edged with pale brown. 



