444 ZOOLOGY BIRDS. 



mules. Several of the men, completely deceived, attempted to catch her, 

 when she gradually fluttered off, keeping all the time just beyond the reach 

 of their hands, till she had enticed them a dozen yards away, when she 

 rose and was off like a bullet, much to their amazement. From Camp 

 Apache southward, the species appeared to be quite numerous, always 

 showing its predilection for rocky hills and rough canons. In the canons 

 of the Gila River, toward its sources in New Mexico, in October and No- 

 vember, they were met with frequently, and scarcely a day passed without 

 three or four coveys being flushed. At this season, they keep in small 

 coveys ; I do not remember to have ever seen more than ten together, and 

 usually from four to eight. Their tameness is remarkable, and the more so 

 when contrasted with the wild, timid nature of Gambel's Partridge, which 

 inhabits the same region. I have ridden so close to a covey sitting among 

 the roclis that, leaning down, I could have almost touched them with my 

 hand. When a covey is flushed, they usually separate, and fly strongly 

 and swiftly in a straight line, dropping down into the first convenient cover. 

 They lie well, requiring to be almost kicked up before taking wing. The 

 species was found in New Mexico as far north as Fort Tulerosa. 



Description of young male. Upper parts pale brown, each feather with a median 

 sharply defined streak of pale ochraceons, and barred with black across the webs; 

 wing coverts ashy, with transverse oval or rounded spots of deep black on opposite 

 webs; primaries and secondaries banded transverely with white spots; head grayish- 

 white laterally and beneath ; the whole throat unspotted ; a dark-brown spot on the 

 auricnlars; the region above and below finely streaked with dusky; crown more 

 brownish, spotted with black, and with whitish shaft streaks; lower parts pale gray, 

 inclining to plumbeous on middle of breast; each feather with a terminal deltoid spot 

 of white, bordered anteriorly by a narrow bar of black ; abdomen tinged with ochra- 

 ceous ; anal region, tibiae, and crissum velvety black. 



Chick. Head above brownish, with an occipital patch of chestnut brown; a small 

 black spot behind the eye; crest, of five feathers, just appearing, each feather streaked 

 centrally with white, bordered by blackish-brown ; upper parts brown, each feather 

 streaked centrally with white, and with two to three transverse spots of black ; under 

 parts dull white, each feather with trauverse spottings of blackish-brown. 



