CALIFORNIAN QUAIL. 655 



as they do not take a general alarm on being approached, 

 but rise at intervals only by two or three at a time. 



The Anaerican Quail is about 9 inches long, and 14 in alar extent. 

 Line over the eye descending down the side of the neck, with the 

 chin and throat pure white, the latter (in the full grown bird) bound- 

 ed by a descending crescent of black. Crown, neck, and upper 

 part of the breast reddish-brown. The sides of the neck nearly be- 

 low the crescent, are spotted with white and black on a rufous ground. 

 Back, shoulders, and lesser wing-coverts cinnamon brown mingled 

 with ash-color, and minutely pointed with black. Wings dusky, the 

 coverts edged with yellowish-white. Lower part of the breast and 

 belly white, faintly tinged with yellow, and each feather elegantly 

 variegated with a wide arrow-head of black. Tail ash-colored, mi- 

 nutely spotted with reddish-brown. Bill black. Iris hazel. Legs 

 and feet pale a^h-color inclining to leaden blue. — By BufFon and oth- 

 ers, the bill of the full grown young, as the Mexican or Louisiana 

 Quail, is, by mistake, colored red. Mauduyt, however, in the Ency- 

 clopedie Methodique (Ornithol.) i. pp. 599, COO, says expressly, we 

 frequently receive this bird among collections made in Louisiana, 

 but in all that we have seen the bill is not red, but dark brown. 



CALIFORNIAN QUAIL. 



(Perdix caUfor7iica, Lath. Synops. Suppl. ii. p. 281. No, 7. Tetrao 

 californicus, Nat. Miscel, tab. 345.) 



Sp. Charact. — Crested; cinereous brown, varied with yellowish; 

 the throat black, bounded with yellowish-white. — The female 

 lighter, destitute of black. 



This curious species, discovered by Menzies, is said 

 to be chiefly, if not wholly confined to the west side of 

 the northern Andes, and is common throughout the prov- 

 ince of California, and the territory of the Oregon. Lit- 

 tle or nothing is known of the manners of this remote 

 bird. A covey, however, have been recently introduced 

 alive to the Zoological Gardens. Among these, the pug- 

 nacious character of the males was nearly as conspicuous 

 as in the Grous. 



