BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 273 



similar but less oblique scutella — both with smaller scutella of longitudinal 

 tendency next to margins of acrotarsium. 



Plumage and coloration. — A distinct elongated crest of several rather 

 narrow parallel-edged nearly straight flat plumes springing from center 

 of vertex. Scapulars and tertials spotted with black and tipped with buff ; 

 sides and flanks banded with white and brownish black, the breast and 

 chest more narrowly banded or barred. Sexes alike in color. 



Range. — Highlands of Mexico. (Monotypic.) 



PHILORTYX FASCIATUS (Gould) 



Banded Quail 



Adult male. — Forehead, crown, and occiput light Saccardo's umber, 

 tinged with bright tawny-olive on the crown ; from the middle of the crown 

 arises a crest of fairly long, truncated, fuscous-black feathers tipped with 

 bright tawny-olive ; feathers of hindneck and lower sides of neck, and 

 the anterior interscapulars, mouse gray, tipped with tawny-olive, the tips 

 broader on the neck than on the interscapulars, and, in the former area, 

 largely hiding the gray areas in the overlapping feathers ; posterior inter- 

 scapulars, back, and rump feathers dark mouse gray narrowly tipped 

 with pale tawny-while, many of them, especially in the upper back, sub- 

 terminally blotched with fuscous-black ; scapulars, upper wing coverts, 

 and innermost secondaries grayish Saccardo's umber, tipped and crossed 

 by fine tawny-white to white bars and heavily blotched with fuscous-black 

 subterminally on both webs (in some feathers the blotches on the two 

 webs are coalesced; in others they are separate); secondaries between 

 grayish Saccardo's umber and olive-brown crossed by incomplete marginal 

 fine .bars of tawny-white to white ; primaries dull olive-brown, some of the 

 outer webs with faint indications of marginal spots of paler; upper tail 

 coverts like the rump but finely speckled and vermiculated with dull tawny- 

 olive tinged with gray, the longer ones crossed sparingly by indistinct 

 fine whitish bars, and slightly blotched with fuscous-black subterminally ; 

 rectrices dusky grayish Saccardo's umber tipped and crossed by six or 

 more wavy whitish bands each of which is proximally bordered by a 

 slightly broader one of blackish, the umber interspaces finely speckled 

 with dusky ; lores, cheeks, auriculars, and sides of throat dusky Sac- 

 cardo's umber ; chin and throat whitish ; upper breast feathers light mouse 

 gray broadly tipped with tawny-olive, the more posterior ones similar 

 but blotched with fuscous-blackish succeeded by a white subterminal band 

 separating the blackish from the brownish tips ; feathers of upper abdomen, 

 sides, and flanks white banded heavily with fuscous to fuscous-black, 

 the width of the blackish bands and tips increasing posteriorly ; middle 

 of abdomen, and vent white, more or less tinged with buffy ; thighs sim- 

 ilar but tawnier ; under tail coverts buffy white, each with a large median, 



