PERDICID.E — THE PARTRIDGES. 



491 



other species. He reports them as very difficult to shoot, for the reason 

 that, whenever a bevy is disturbed, the birds scatter, and, running witli 

 outstretched necks and erected crests, dodge through the bushes like ral)- 

 bits, so as soon to be out of reach. He has thus seen a tiock of ten or 

 fifteen disajjpear so entirely as to render it impossible to obtain a siugle 

 one. If left undisturbed, they commence their call-note, which is not unlike 

 the chirp of a chicken, and soon reunite. It was utterly out of the question 

 to get them to rise, and the only way to procure specimens was to shoot 

 them on the ground. Xear the small villages in Mexico he found them 

 very tame ; and at Presidio, on the Eio Grande, he noticed them in a corral, 

 feeding with some poultry. He did not meet with their eggs, l>ut they were 

 described to him, by the Mexicans, as dull white, with minute reddish spots. 

 The egg of the Callipepla squamata is regularly oval, being much more 

 elongated than with any other species of this family. It measures 1.35 

 inches in length by .95 in breadth. Its gTound-color is a creamy white, and 

 its suiface is minutely freckled with specks of a pale drab. 



Genus CYRTONYX, Gould. 



Cyrtonyx, Gould, Mon. Odontojih. ? 1845. (Type, Ortfix massena. Lesson.) 



Ges. Ch.ir. Bill very stout and robust. Head with a broad, soft occipital crest of 

 short decumbent feathers. Tail very short, half the length of the wings, composed of 

 soft feathers, the longest scarcely 

 longer than the coverts ; much gradu- 

 ated. Wings long and broad, the 

 coverts and tertials so much enlarged 

 as to conceal the quills. Feet robust, 

 extending considerably beyond the tip 

 of the tail. Claws very large, the 

 outer lateral reaching nearly to the 

 middle of the central anterior. The 

 toes without the claws, however, are 

 very short. Sexes very difierent. 



This genus differs very nuich 

 from its North American allies in 

 the great development of the 

 feathers composing the wing- 

 coverts, the very short and soft tail, and the very short toes and long claws. 

 It is almost worthy of forming the type of a distinct subfamily, so many 

 and great are its jieculiarities. The single North American representative is 

 the only one of our species with round white spots on the lower surface and 

 black ones above. A second species, C. ocdlatvs, is found in Southern Mexico. 

 They may be distinguished as follows : — 



Cyrtonyx massena. 



