74 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Oreortyx picta confinis subsp. nov. 

 San Pedro Partridge. 



Subsp. char. — Differing from Oreortyx picta plimdf era i\\ 

 grayer upper parts aacl thicker bill. 



Adult S . (Type, No. 2560, collection of A. W. Anthony 

 from San Pedro Martir, Lower California, April 25, 1889, 

 elevation, 8,500 feet.) Back, wings and tail, ashy brown 

 with slight olive wash. Inner secondaries and tertiaries 

 bordered with white, forming, when wings are closed, two 

 parallel bars of white. Foreparts, above and below, slaty 

 blue, slightly grayer above. Belly, rich chestnut, banded 

 on the sides with bars of white and black. Flanks, rufous. 

 Tibiae, ashy. Crissum, velvety black streaked with chest- 

 nut. Throat, chestnut, bordered laterally with narrow 

 black line, which in turn is bordered with white. A white 

 mask surrounding the bill and changing to grayish on fore- 

 head. Arrow plumes, black. 



Habitat. — Mountains of San Pedro range, Lower Califor- 

 nia, reaching to valleys in winter. 



From an elevation of six thousand to ten thousand feet 

 above the sea, in the San Pedro Mountains, I found this 

 quail abundant, occurring wherever Avater and timber af- 

 forded it drink and shelter, and only leaving the higher 

 elevations when the frosts of winter make life in the lower 

 valleys desirable, A few pairs bred about my camp atVal- 

 ladores, six miles from the base of the range and 2,500 feet 

 above the sea; but nearly all of the flocks that wintered 

 along the creek at this point were gone in March, leaving 

 onl}^ an occasional pair, which sought the shelter of the 

 manzanitas high up on the hill-sides, from whence their 

 clear, mellow notes were heard morning and evening, so 

 suggestive of cool brooks and rustling pines, but so out of 

 place in the hot, barren hills of that region. 



