found to be distended with seeds of grass mixed with a large
number of insects. Seeds of the reed (Arundo phrdgimtis)
are also frequently to be met with, and the gizzards of all
■Contain sand and fragments of stone.
The adult male has the beak brownish-grey ;-: the irides
hazel; top of the head dark brown, with a pale woodWbrown
Streak from the base of the beak on each side-over the eye
and the ear-coverts, and a narrow streak of the same colour
over the crown of the head to -the nape of th£ neck jdthe
plumage of- the 'back, wings, rump, and .tail, brown, Mth
lighter-coloured shafts and longitudinal streaks of wood-
brown ; wing-primaries dusky brown, »mottled with light
brown chin and throat white, bounded by* two half-circular
dark brown bands 'descending from the .ear-Coverts, and
with a black patch at the bottom' ■ in • fro n t; - breastrfeathers
pale chestnut-brown, with sh a fts; lower part o f the ' breast,
•the..belly, vent, and under tail-coverts.;|•yeU'owishrwkite;
flank-feathers barred and mottled with brown on the edges,
and broadly streaked with p^le butf down the centre; tegs,
toes, and claws-/ pal'e brown.
The whole length is seven’ inches. The wing from .the4
carpal joint to the end, four inches and a h a lf: the -first
feather ; a. very vliitle' -iongei* than ' the second, and a qaj-arter
,of an inch longer thah :the .'third;; the: forin,of the .wing is
therefore pointed. * a
The female has r>no dark4 half-circular marks descending;
'down'the sides -oft the neckj nor the black patch ini front ;
but the feathers on 1$®-breast «are strongly marked .with
a small dark spot on each side" of the light strawrealoured
shaft.
The young birds of -the year resemble /the adult female.
T h e young-males-do not acquire the black patch on the-
front of the nOek till the ir second year.
In the illustration'which» pnecedes'ctjris subject, the-figure
in the foreground represents itHe' male bird y th a t .behind
and a little to tho left, the female.
Turnix svlvatica (Desfontaines*)/ië
THE ANDALUSIAN HEMIPODE.
Hemipodius taekyd^omus.«• I
Tüeotx, ionnatèrref. — Beak moderate, slender, very'compresfeëd ; cnlmen/
elevated- and curved towards the point. Nostrils lateral, linear,-longitudinally
cleft, partly closed by a membrane. . Tarsus rather loug. Toes, three befprp,
entirely dividf$.; no .posterior |o,e« Tail composed of weak yielding feathers
clustered together, and concealed'by the feathers of theT)aok Wings moderate,
the first and second quill-feathers nearly equal, and the lorfgëst.
The term Hemipodius, ‘signifying Half-foot, -was applied
genetically by M .T em m in c k /in -1 8 1 5 ,^ several »species-of
quail-like birds, but with three’-tees only, which/ from their
very diminutivë^size were considered the pigmies among the
Gallinaceous birds: an order inwhieh they have generally been
pl'acéd. t&ffe&;*the fight* thrown "upon their anatomy by-the
* Tetr;ao sylvaticus, D.esfontaines, Mém. de'l’Acad.^R^des" Seï,
p t xiiï.'
f Tableau Encycl. et.'Métbbd.^^tk-S ^1®^^)^