3'04 The MontKs Ai rivals. 
' I am iiidebled to Mr. F. C. Tlioi pe for an opportunity of describing 
tlie following three species: 
(i) A Rock Spakkow, \ts,^\\\\)\\\\a [P. dentala) in size and style but 
vt'ith rufous-brown crown, back and tail, and pronounced liglil-grey eye- 
brow streak — not at piesent identified. 
(ii) A TROriCAi, Sehd-Finch {Oryzoborns iort idm). This rare and 
beautiful Grosbeak will, I hope, be picked up by one of our exliibiling. 
members. The whole of the upper parts and the throat are a brilliant 
black, the whole of the lower parts a deep, rich chestnut, and there isa zone 
of jnire white across the base of the primaries which shows up well when 
he flies. The remarkably large black beak adds to the quaint st\ le of the 
bird. Dr. Butler says of this s])ecies "outer webs of primal ies white at base : 
iiides greyish brown." I have made marginal notes on my copy of his 
excellent work to the effect that the inner and outer margins" of the 
of the primaries of this particular si)ecimen were white and that the irides 
•were broicm. Habitat : S. .America. 
(iii) Thk Akgoondah Quait, {Peidiciila argoondah). A pair of 
this charming little species were sent nie as long ago as the beginning of 
last September, but I have not referred to them before because I have never 
until lecently been quite satisfied as to their identity. Thev were identi- 
fied by a leading official of the South Kensiuj^lon Museum from my 
description as P. asiatica, but probably my description was not detailed, 
enough. It was some time before I had an opportunity of seeing a skin and 
then I had not the living specimen at hand to coinjjare with it. They 
appeared to me (and also to Mr. Thorpe) somewhat different from the 
Jungle Bush Quail which lias been frequently iiii])()rted, and as recently, 
as 1908 by our member Captain Perreau. However, in the course of a recent 
visit to the Metropolis I became the possessor of a second-hand copy of 
Ogilvie Grant's " Hand-book to the Game-birds." Tliis I can strongly 
recommend : it is a kind of abstract of his larger work on the same 
subject, replete with useful information and very moderate in price. 
The description of P. aigoondak caused me to catch up mv pair and 
examine them again. They may be briefly described as follows : — vSize : 
larger than a Chinese or Rain Ouail. Male : above brown, barred with buff 
and black ; pale rufous on throat ; below white with close and regular 
black cross-bars. Female : above brown with the most delicate shadings 
and pencillings as seen on the Wryneck, with a few reddish feathers ; throat 
dull white; below dull vinacious buff. The female asiaiica h&s -a vnhnxs 
throat so I had no difficulty in referring my female \.o. P. argoondah . Accord- 
ing to Ogilvie Grant, the male P. asiatica has only the outer margins of the 
flight feathers barred with buff, whereas the male argoondah has both inner 
and outer margins barred. Now my male has only about two-thirds of the 
secondaries and one-third of the pi iiiiaries so marked, but as I noted that 
two of the primaries which were just coming down were wholly barred, I 
