70 Zoology of Colorado 



Pici or woodpeckers have the toes two in front and two behind, 

 or there may be only three toes. The Coccyges (cuckoos, road- 

 runner and kingfishers) never have stiff pointed tail feathers like 

 those of the woodpeckers ; the toes are two in front and two behind 

 (cuckoos), or three in front and one behind, the middle and outer 

 ones connected for half their length (kingfishers). The remain- 

 ing birds constitute the enormous order Passeres, the perching 

 birds, with toes three in front and one behind, the middle and 

 outer toes not united. As a matter of fact nearly everyone knows 

 these ordinal groups and their major subdivisions at sight, and 

 technical details are not necessary for indentification. 



GALLINAE 



The family Meleagridae (turkeys) is known at once by the 

 naked head and neck. Merriam's turkey (Meleagris gallopavo 

 merriami of Nelson) was common in the days of Pike (1806), but 

 is now scarce and in danger of extinction.* The name gallopavo 

 means chicken-peacock, or peacock-hen. The quails (Odonto- 

 phoridae) have the tarsus bare; in the grouse (Tetraonidae) it is 

 more or less feathered. The Bob-white (Colinus virginianus), 

 with no distinct crest on the head, is found in Eastern Colorado, 

 having spread with human occupation, and in many places intro- 

 duced by man. Lincoln has described a distinct race (C. v. taylori) 

 from Yuma County. The beautiful Scaled Quail (Callipepla 

 squamata pallida) has a high white- tipped crest on the head, and 

 the feathers of the neck and breast are dark-edged, giving the 

 appearance of scales. It inhabits the country south of the Arkan- 

 sas River, but has spread north and east in recent years. The 

 genus Lophortyx is known by the slender upright, curved, club- 

 shaped crest; it includes the introduced California Quail (Lophor- 

 tyx calif ornicd) and the Gambel Quail (L. gambeli). The former 

 has the under side of the body "scaled", after the fashion of 

 Callipepla; in the latter this is not the case. The University of 

 Colorado Museum has a pair of Gambel's Quail taken by A. T. 

 Wheeler at Montrose in 1905, and Mearns stated that a specimen 

 of the race L. g. sanus was taken at Olathe in Montrose County. 



*M. gallopavo intermed a of Sennett, orginally described from Texas, is reported by 

 Hutton. Bull. Cclo. Game and Fish Assn., IV (1924) No. 4, p. 4. 



