Id87.] riiOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAE MUSEUM. (J55 



Family AVillilZWjE. Surf Birds aud Turustoiics. 

 Genus ARENARIA Bkissox. 



86. Arenaria interpres (Linx.). Turnstone. 



This cosmopolitan is common about the sand aud shell beaches of the 

 uortheru part of Padre Island, according to Seunett,aud Hancock notes 

 it as a common bird at Corpus Christi. 



Family H^EMATOPODID.E. Oyster-catchers. 

 Genus ILEMATOPUS Linnaeus. 



87. Haematopus palliatus Temm. Amoiiciiu Oyster-catclier. 



On both of Sennett's trips he found this bird common about Corpus 

 Christi Bay, where thej^ were breeding and were quite tame. Ilancock 

 also saw great numbers there. 



Order GALLIN/E. Gallinaceous Birds. 



Family TETRAOI^ID^E. Grouse, Partridges, etc. 



Genus COLINUS Lessox. 



88. Coliuus virgiuianus texanus (Lawk.). Texan Bob-white, 



The iutergradation of GoUnns ridgwayi and C gray.wni has been ably 

 sustained by both Mr. Allen aud Mr. lirewster, but the suggestion tlmt 

 the latter may intergrade with C vlrginianus texanus has not, I believe, 

 found its way into print, although Mr, Eidgway, in a private letter, has 

 advanced this idea. It is well known that the females are hardly, if at 

 all, distinguishable, the characteristic differences between the two forms 

 being in the i^lumage of the males. One of my Texas specimens (28o-i 

 S , Corpus Christi, Jan. 29) indicates this supposed intergradation very 

 markedly, the chief point of similarity to G. ridgwayi consisting in a 

 large and well-defined central black patch in the white of the throat. 

 Dresser also procured examples similarly marked. He says: " I pro- 

 cured some specimens of this quail near San Antonio with the throat 

 black surrounded by white instead of pure white, so that the white 

 forms a narrow crescent pointing upwards, the black commencing from 

 the bill. Some had the black patch very dark aud cleai?ly defined, and 

 others had the black extending a very short distance below the bill and 

 mixed with white spots. These varieties are not found by themselves, 

 but in the same bevies Avith birds of the usual type." 



Whether this black in the white throat-patch is a case of " develop- 

 ment" or merely the persistance of an ancestral type, can not with our 

 present lights be determined. 



All of the nine specimens of males of G. ridgwayi in the U. S. National 

 Museum show white on the black of the throat; in two of them this 

 feature is developed in a very marked degree, and in all of them the 



