Scaled Quail 141 



Genus CALLIPEPLA. 



Crown with a full, soft and depressed crest ; tail of fourteen feathers ; 

 about I the length of the wing ; plmnage of the iinder-parts scaly in 

 appearance. 



Only one species of this genus is recognized, confined to south-west 

 United States and Mexico. 



Scaled Quail. Callipepla squamata. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 293 — Colorado Records — Lowe 95, p. 298 ; 

 Anthony 95, p. 388 ; Cooke 97, pp. 69, 202 ; Bailey 03, p. 112 ; Judd 

 05, p. 61 ; Warren 06, p. 19 ; 10, p. 30 ; DiUe 09, p. 87. 



Description. — Adult — Above slaty-blue, washed with tawny on the 

 wings and middle-back ; feathers of the upper-back and breast edged 

 with black, producing a scaly appearance ; crown with a full, soft 

 crest, tipped with white ; inner tertiaries edged with white ; below 

 the throat is pale yellowish-white, the sides are slaty, streaked with 

 white and the abdomen is mottled with brown and white ; iris hazel, 

 bill black, legs brownish. Length 10 ; wing 4-5 ; tail 3-25 ; culmen -5 ; 

 tarsus 1'2. 



A young bird has the upper-parts marked with black bars and white 

 mesial streaks, while the breast is brownish with white triangular 

 streaks. 



Distribution. — A resident from southern Colorado, south through 

 western Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to the valley of Mexico. 



The Scaled Quail was first found in Colorado by Lowe, who on June 

 10th, 1895, killed one in the eastern foothills of the Wet Mountains. 

 Apparently they have always been abundant in the cedar country to 

 the south of the Arkansas River, in Las Arimas and western Baca co., 

 but diu-ing the last ten years they have been spreading north and east. 

 In 1899-1900 they were very common near Rocky Ford (Cooke), and 

 last summer (1908) there were quite a nvmiber round about Colorado 

 Springs, while on June 2nd and 8th of that year a pair were killed 

 near the summit of Pikes Peak — a most remarkable instance of 

 their wandering propensities. They are also spreading eastward 

 into south-western Kansas, and are well known at Monon and 

 Springfield (Warren). 



Habits. — This bird, also known as the Cotton-top and 

 Blue Quail, and sometimes rather erroneously as the 

 Scaled Partridge, is chiefly found in open and arid country 

 where the yucca, cactus and sage-brush flourish. It is 



