Turnix taigoor, Syhes. 



VemaCUlar Names.— [Gulu, Gundlu, Salui-gundru (Hindustani) ; Pured 

 {female), Koladu (male) (Telegu) ; Kurung-kadeh {female), An-kadeh (male] 

 (Tamil) ; Durwa, Ratnagiri ; Kare-haki (Canarese), Mysore ; 



HERE has been so much confusion between the 

 several species of Bustard and Button-Quail, that it 

 is difficult to indicate accurately the distribution of 

 the present species. I myself went quite wrong in 

 " Nests and Eggs." 



The present species is very close to the next, but 

 though nearly* the same size, and with very similar 

 markings, the prevailing tint of the interscapulary region and 

 back in the Indian Bustard-Quail is rufous, in the Indo-Malayan 

 bird, brown. There are differences in markings, but no weight 

 must be attached to these, as they are individual. Scarcely any 

 two specimens of either species are precisely alike, but almost 

 every variation in markings in one species will be found also 

 in some specimens in the other. It is solely, so far as I can 

 ascertain, by the prevailing tone of the colour of the upper 

 surface that the two species can be separated.-)* This may seem 

 an insufficient reason for making two species out of the form ; 

 but it has to be noted that, if taking a large series from all parts 

 of the Empire you separate the two forms, you find that all 

 the really red birds (the present species) are from one geogra- 

 phical area, and all the brown birds from another. 



As I said before, there has been great confusion about the 

 several Indian species. I have been misled by others, and have 

 myself made mistakes ; and now in trying to define the range of 

 the Indian Bustard-Quail I shall disregard everything but 

 the testimony of specimens which I possess or have myself 

 examined. 



* The Indo-Malayan bird averages larger, as will be seen from the detailed 

 dimensions given. 



+ There is, as above noticed, a slight difference in average size, but this would not 

 enable us to separate the two birds, since large specimens of the one would be quite 

 as big, or even bigger, than small ones of the other. 



22 



