494 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



that country. They are more sociable and not so shy as the other species 

 of tliis i'ainily. Their food appears to be principally insects. 



^Ir. Dresser states that this bird is locally known as the Black Partridge. 

 For some time he sought for it near San Antonio without success, but ulti- 

 mately found it, in No\emljer, among the Bandera Hills. In its liabits he 

 states it is more like the Texan Quail than any other ; but on the wing it is 

 easily distinguished, it flies so heavily, though very swiftly. ^Yhen dis- 

 turbed, they squat very close, and will not move until approached very 

 closely, when they generally rise up from under one's feet. He did not 

 meet with this Quail in an)' other part of Texas than Bandera County, but 

 was told that it is abundant in the hilly country at the head of the Leona, 

 and that it is also found near Laredo. 



In some remarks on the birds of Western Texas, published in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Philadelphia Academy in 1851, Colonel McCall gives the first 

 information to the public touchuig the habits of this interesting species. 

 We learn from his narrative tliat it was not met with by him before cross- 

 ing the San Pedro Piiver, but that it was soon after seen in the rocky re- 

 gions into which he then entered ; and thence as far as the llio Pecos, 

 a distance of one hundred and forty miles westwardly, it was frequently 

 seen, though it was not anywhere very common. This entire region is a 

 desert of great extent, north and south; the general face of the country is 

 level, and produces nothing but a sparse growth of sand-plants. Water was 

 found only at long intervals, and except at sucli pouits there was apparently 

 neither food nor cover. There, among projecting rocks or the borders of dry 

 gullies, or in loose scrub, tliis bird was met with by Colonel ilcCall. 



The habits of this species appeared to him to be different from those of 

 any other kind of Partridge he had ever met with. They were in coveys 

 of from eight to twelve individuals, and appeared to be simple and affection- 

 ate in disposition. In feeding they separated but little, keeping up all the 

 while a social rhmk. They were so gentle as to e\"ince little or no alarm on 

 the approach of man, hardly moving out of the way as they passed, and 

 only running off or flying a few yards, even when half their number had 

 been shot. Colonel ilcCall was of the opinion that tliey might, with very 

 little difficulty, be domesticated, though naturally inhabiting a barren waste 

 nowhere near the habitation of man. The call-note is spoken of as very 

 peculiar. The bird was not seen by his party after crossing the Pecos River. 

 Mr. Gould, without any information in regard to the habits or economy of 

 this species, in his ^Monograph of American Partridges, judging from the 

 comparative shortness of the toes and the great development of the claws, 

 ventured the opinion that the habits would be found verj- different from 

 those of other membere of the family, which opinion is thus confirmed. Mr. 

 Cassin thought he could trace in the circidar spots, numerous in the lower 

 part of the body, an analogy in character to the Guinea-fowls, which is fur- 

 ther shown Vij- their habit of continually uttering their notes as they feed, 

 and by other similarity in their manners. 



