Adult male (type and only specimen).—Ground-color of upper parts black; feathers of head narrowly edged with dull buff, paler on forehead; a narrow median line of pale buff from forehead to nape; hind neck, mantle, rump, and tail-coverts with wavy, broken, cross-lines of dark rusty buff, obsolete on neck; lores and side of head light buff with small black tips to feathers; a patch on each side of neck pale vinaceous-buff with narrow black cross-lines; chin and throat white, each feather with narrow buff tips, middle of abdomen white; rest of lower parts rusty buff or clay-color, a trifle lighter than in T. worcesteri; each feather on sides of breast marked with a wide black bar; primaries, secondaries, primary-coverts, and alula drab-gray; first primary and first feather of alula edged exteriorly with ocherous-buff; secondary-coverts and inner secondaries with wide edges of ocherous-buff preceded by large black spots or bars; wing-lining and axillars drab-gray; tail bluish slate and hidden by the long coverts. Length, 130; wing, 65.5; tail, 18.1; exposed culmen, 11.5; depth of bill at angle of gonys, 4; tarsus, 20; middle toe with claw, 18.5.
The only specimen known was taken on a grassy hill near the town of Guindulman, in Bohol, June 22, 1906. It is closely related to T. suluensis.
10. TURNIX WORCESTERI McGregor.
WORCESTER’S BUTTON QUAIL.
- Turnix worcesteri McGregor, Bull. Philippine Mus. (1904), 4, 8, pl. 1, fig. 1; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 8.
Luzon (McGregor).
Adult (sexes nearly alike).—General color above black; forehead spotted with white; feathers of crown and nape tipped with pale buff and some edged with white, producing an incomplete white line on middle of head (this line may be perfect in a well made skin); feathers on back and rump barred and tipped with pale buff; tertials and scapulars edged with whitish buff; feathers on sides of face mostly white with black tips; lores white; feathers on sides of neck black, each with a wide, subterminal, white bar; a small black spot behind ear; breast and throat rusty buff or dark clay-color, this color extending up each side of the white chin-area as rusty-buff tips to the feathers and bounded above by the black-tipped white feathers of malar region; flanks, under tail-coverts, and sides of abdomen and breast also rusty buff, but paler; middle of abdomen whitish; a few feathers on sides of abdomen barred with blackish brown; primaries, their coverts, and secondaries drab-gray; four outer primaries narrowly edged with whitish; secondaries barred with whitish on outer webs; secondary-coverts blackish, mottled and edged with pale buff; rectrices blackish, edged with buff. Bill pale bluish; legs flesh-pink, nails slightly darker; iris very pale yellow. A male measures: Length, 120; wing, 65; tail, 27; culmen from base, 10; depth of bill at angle of gonys, 5; tarsus, 17; middle toe with claw, 16. Length of female, 128; wing, 71; tail, 23.5; culmen, 11.4; depth of bill at angle of gonys, 5.8; tarsus, 16.7; middle toe with claw, 18.
Worcester’s quail is known from four specimens which were purchased in Quinta Market, Manila. It resembles T. whiteheadi but differs from that species in having the bill much deeper. Major E. A. Mearns informs me that he is quite sure that he saw a live bird of this species in Manila, in August, 1907.