122 GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 



feathers of nape without dusky borders ; belly ivhite, unmarked. Length : 

 y.oO- 10.00, wing- 4.45-4.70, tail 4.10-4.70. 



Hemarks. — The Gambel partridge may be distinguished in nearly all 

 plumages by its belly markings — the male by the black patch and ab- 

 sence of scaling ; the female by chestnut flanks and absence of scales ; 

 and the young by the white, wholly unmarked belly. 



Distribution. — Resident in Lower Sonoran zone from western Texas to 

 southeastern California, and from southern Utah and Nevada south through 

 central Sonora, Mexico. 



Nest. — A slightly lined hollow often beside a bunch of tall grass, in 

 freshet drift, or occasionally under a yucca. Eggs : usually 10 to 12, 

 white to buff, irregularly spotted, blotclaed, and clouded with brown, the 

 blotches with a pinkish or purplish bloom. 



Food. — Insects, especially grasshoppers and ants ; also seeds, grain, 

 mesquite beans, berries, and tender leaves and buds. 



The breeding season comes early in the valleys of the Gila and 

 lower Colorado rivers. By February the deserts ^oom, the aromatic 

 creosote bush puts on its yellow robe, the big crimson and yellow 

 cactus flowers, the fragrant evening primroses open wide, and yel- 

 low tassels dangle from the mesquite. In the balmy spring morning 

 the first sound to greet your ears is the shrill cha cliaa , elm chaa' , of 

 the cock quail from his perch on the blooming mesquite, and answer- 

 ing calls follow from up and down the valley. When the sun has 

 risen higher you find the quail in pairs, hunting among the bushes 

 for nesting-sites, talking in low, soft tones, the cock often bowing 

 and strutting with important airs and crest low over his bill. When, 

 after much careful prospecting, a nest spot is found safe from floods, 

 hidden from enemies, and within daily reach of w^ater, the birds 

 settle down to home duties ; and before the flow^ers are gone may be 

 found leading about families of striped-backed chicks.' The chicks 

 must be guarded from a host of enemies, but the old birds are wise 

 guardians, and early autumn shows large flocks of plump, nearly 

 full-grown quail, always on the alert, quick to scatter, but sure to 

 reassemble, calling back and forth in small piping voices till the last 

 of the brood is in. Later in the season the families collect in large 

 flocks, often of fifty or a hundred, and scatter in the daytime to 

 feed in the open, returning at night with a roar of wings to roost in 

 some dense thicket or brushy bottom-land, huddled together in a 

 snug, feathery mass. 



To the pot-hunter and trapper the birds are easy prey, but with 

 proper protection they increase so rapidly as to be in no danger of 

 extermination. Vernon Bailey. 



GENUS CYRTONYX. 



296.1. Cyrtonyx montezumae mearnsi Nelson. Mearns 

 Quail. 

 Bill very stout ; head with a full crest of soft, blended, depressed feath- 



