1 1 CHOPEIKJ0>IX E R T T H R O R H Y W C H A ,
M1CROPERDIX ERYTHRORHYNCHA.
Little Red-billed Partridge.
Colurnix erythrorhyncha, Sykes in Proc. of Com. ofSci. andCorr. o f Zool. Soc., p a rt ii. p. 153.—Id. Trans. Zool. Soc.,
vol. ii. p. 16, pi. 1.—Gray, Zool. Ind., vol. ii. pi. 44. fig. 2.—Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. iii.
p. 507, Coturnix, sp. 10.—Gray, List o f Spec, of Birds in Coll. Brit. Mus., p a rt iii. p. 40.
--------- ? erythrorhyncha, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 255.
Perdicula erythrorhyncha, Bonap. in Compt. Rend, de l’Acad. des Sci., Mai 12, 1856, tom. lxii.
Perdix erythrorhynchaj^lyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xi. p. 808.
Kokui Lowa of the Hindoos (Je rdon).
Red-bellied or Black Quail of the Neilgherries.
The little bird figured in the accompanying Plate may claim the precedence in point of beauty over all the
smaller Gallinacece, its form and contour being especially elegant. It appears to me to be very nearly allied
to the Excalfatoria Chinensis of China and the little Bush Partridges of Australia, figured in my work on
the birds of that country under the generic appellation of Synoicus; at the same time it is quite distinct from
both those forms. Neither can I for a moment hesitate about separating it from the small Bush Partridges
(Perdiculos) of India, with which it has hitherto been associated,—those birds having stout and deeply
formed bills, and being clothed in a very different style of plumage; I have therefore made it the type
of a new genus—Microperdix.
The great peninsula of India is the country in which this bird dwells in a state of nature, and over which
it is generally distributed; at the same time it is somewhat local, as will be 6een from the following brief
notes by Col. Sykes and Mr. Jerdon, which comprise all that is known respecting it.
“ This very handsome bird,” says Colonel Sykes, “ I have never met with out o f the valley of Karleh, in the
Ghauts, frequenting the same ground as the Black Partridge (Francolims pictus). It is gregarious and
abundant.”
“ This handsomely plumaged Quail,” remarks Mr. Jerdon, “ is very abundant on the tops o f the
Neilgherries, frequenting the low brushwood of the woods, and occasionally entering gardens. As it is
mentioned by Colonel Sykes and Mr. Elliot, in his Catalogue, it is probably to be found in all the more
elevated districts of the Western Ghauts.”
The following is Colonel Sykes’s description of the two sexes:—
“ Male: the bill and legs are red, which colour nearly disappears in dried specimens; the irides are o f a
brownish yellow-ochre colour; crown velvet-black; the throat is pure white, bounded by a narrow line of
black; and a white bar passes across the forehead, and is extended over both eyes to the back of the h ead;
all the upper surface of the body and the breast rich chocolate-brown, studded with lunules of velvet-black ;
the feathers of the scapularies, wing-coverts and secondaries with large patches of b lack; a yellow line runs
down the shaft, which is crossed by one or two yellow lin e s ; wings reddish brown, spotted and barred with
faint chestnut on their outer webs ; tail brown, spotted with black, and barred with yellow lines; lower part
of the breast, abdomen and vent rufous; each feather of the flanks with a broad spot of black, and with a
whitish tip.
“ The female differs only in the absence of the black on the head and the white bar across the forehead,
the latter being rufous; and in the throat and under surface being pale chestnut, washed with brown on
the breast.”
The stomachs of those examined by Colonel Sykes were “ full of grass-seeds, with a few seeds of
Ermm Lens."
The Plate represents two males and a female, of the natural size.