ORTYX (CASTAS® U S ':C ouhl.
ORTYX CASTANEUS, Gould.
Chestnut-coloured Partridge.
S p e c if ic C har a c t er .
O r t . f route guldque n ig r is ; lined superciliari alba obsoleta usque ad occiput; pectore et lateribus
saturate castaneis ; plumis abdominalibus albis, nigro undatim fa s c ia tis lateralibus, g u ttis
albis supra nigro cinctis, ornatis.
Forehead and throat black; an indistinct line of white runs over the eye to the occiput, above
this another indistinct line o f black; crown o f the head, back of the neck, upper part o f
the back, shoulders, chest and flanks, deep rich chestnut; the feathers on the sides o f the
neck with a black stripe down the centre and an oblong patch o f white down the outer
w eb ; the tertiaries and some o f the scapularies margined with deep fawn-colour, bounded
within by an indistinct line o f black; these feathers are also crossed with indistinct bars
and freckles o f black; rump and upper tail-coverts rich chestnut, minutely freckled, barred
and dotted with black; feathers on the centre of the abdomen white, marked with strong
zigzag bars of black, changing into spots o f white, bounded above by black on the flanks,
all these marks being very brilliant; eyelash dark olive; irides dark reddish hazel; bill
black; legs yellowish white.
Total length, 8 i inches ; bill, -h ; wing, 4 i ; tail, 21; tarsi, It.
O rty x castanea, Gould in Proc. o f Zool. Soc., Part X . p. 182.— Gray and Mitch. Gen. of
Birds, vol. iii. p. 514, Ortyx, sp. 4.
T he only example of this species that has come under my notice, I obtained in a living state at the sale
of the Collection of the late Zoological Gardens at Manchester. I must admit that I have always had a
suspicion that the individual in question had assumed some unnatural style of colouring, and that it was
merely a variety of Ortyx Virginianus or 0. Cubanensis; hut the rich chestnut colouring of the body, the
black colouring of the forehead and throat, and the conspicuous markings of the sides and abdomen, are
characters so different from what are observable in those species, that I have no other alternative than to
describe and figure it as distinct. In size, too, it somewhat exceeds both the birds above-mentioned.
Habitat; at present unknown.
The figures are of the natural size.