144 Birds of Colorado 



work in devouring grass-seeds. It roosts in bushes, 

 not on the ground, and is not so good a sporting-bird as 

 the Bob-white. 



The nest is a depression, hghtly lined with grass, 

 and generally sheltered by brushwood or a rock. The 

 eggs, 12 to 16 in number, are white or buffy, irregularly 

 spotted all over with brown and drab. They average 



1-25 X ro. 



Gambel's Quail. LopJiortyx gambeli. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 294 — Colorado Records — Morrison 89, p. 181 

 Cooke 97, pp. 70, 202. 



Description. — Male — Front half of crown and crest black, with a few 

 white lines on the forehead ; posterior half chestnut-brown, a white 

 transverse line across the crown, another running back from the eye, 

 and a third surrounding the black throat ; general colour above ashy- 

 blue, with dark shaft-lines to the feathers round the neck ; breast like 

 the back ; other under-parts bitffy, rich chestnut streaked with 

 white on the flanks, and a black patch in the middle of the belly ; 

 iris brown, bill black. Length 6-5 ; wing 4-75 ; tail 3-75 ; culmon 45 ; 

 tarsus 1-15. 



The female has the head plain greyish-browTi, a little whiter on the 

 chin, ; the crest is dark brown and not recurved, and the black belly- 

 patch is absent, but the lower-breast and belly are faintly streaked 

 with brown. 



Distribution. — From Western Texas to southern California north to 

 southern Utah and Colorado, south to Sonera in Mexico. 



The claim of Gambel's Quail to admission to the Colorado list seems 

 rather doubtful ; Morrison gives it as rare in the south-west part of the 

 State, and Cooke in more detail says that IMorrison shot three, forty 

 miles south-west of Fort Lewis, This would certainly take one well 

 over into New Mexico, so that although it most probably occurs within 

 the State boundary, it does not appear to have been actually taken. 



Family TETRAONID^. 



Head fully feathered ; tarsus partially or completely 

 feathered and without a spur ; hind toe jointed above 

 the level of the others ; plumage never metallic. 



