Tumix taigoor, Sykea.
Vernacular 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.f 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 geographical
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.