116 GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 



about the farm. But dog and hunter are now abroad, and the quiet, 

 happy days of the quail are over. VERXOX BAILEY. 



289b. C. V. texanus (Lau-r.). TEXAN BOB-WHITE. 



Adult male. Similar to C. virginianus, but upper parts mainly brown 



rather than reddish brown, with distinct 

 whitish barring-s and with less striking- black 

 blotches on scapulars, tertials, and lower 

 back ; under parts more heavily and thickly 

 barred with brown, and usually with broader 

 and more distinct band of pinkish brown 



below black collar. Adult female : like male, but without striking- black 

 or white marking's ; upper parts mixed black, white, and brown, from 

 buff y brown to rufous ; throat patch and superciliary tawny ; flanks less 

 deeply rufous ; median under parts less heavily barred than in male, but 

 more heavily barred than in the female virginianus. Young : browner 

 than in virginianus. Wing : 4.39, tail 2.44, bill ..">',). 



Distribution. - - Resident in Upper and Lower Sonoran zones, from west- 

 ern Kansas south through Texas to eastern Nuevo Leon and Central 

 Tamaulipas, Mexico. 



Nest, egg's, and food like those of the bob-white. 



The Texan bob-white is equally at home in the thorny thickets of 

 southern Texas and in the brushy creek bottoms of western Kansas. 

 At San Antonio, Texas, Mr. Atwater says the quail often come close 

 to his ranch and lay eggs in hens' nests, perhaps on account of the 

 protection afforded against snakes. 



Except for the paler coloration so common in the more open and 

 arid regions, the Texan is a true bob-white, and for habits and voice 

 might have been bred in Ohio. 



291. Colinus ridgwayi Breicst. MASKED BOB-WHITE. 



Adult male. -- Face and throat black, under parts reddish brown ; upper 



parts finely mottled with cinnamon brown, black, 

 and buff ; back of neck finely streaked with white, 

 Adult female : like the female of C. v. texanus, but 

 usually with a more marked chest band and 

 p- ,00 heavier barring on bellv. 117/K/: 4.41), tail 2.81, 



bill .60. 



Distribution. Southwestern Arizona and northwestern Sonora. 

 Nest..--]\\ one record, a shallow excavation beside a tuft of grass. 

 ' (>. white, unspotted. 



Food. -- lii-d ants, grasshoppers, beetles, seeds, leaves, and berries. 



The masked bob-white, iirst discovered in southern Arizona by 

 .Mr. Herbert Brown, finds congenial cover in the high grass of the 

 mesas and valleys, disappearing when stock destroy the grass. Mr. 

 Brown describes the male as strikingly handsome when the sun red- 

 dens the deep chestnut of his breast. His two characteristic notes 

 arc the family 1<>1, //////,, n-iven in bold full tones from the top of 

 a n>ek or bush, and a ' /trw-we,' used when the birds are scattered, 

 especially toward nightfall. 



