280 PARTRIDGE. 



extent, and wlicn in good order, weighs about three pounds and a half; 

 the neck is furnished with supplemental wings, each composed of 

 eighteen feathers, five of which are black, and about three inches long, 

 the rest shorter, also black, streaked laterally with brown, and of 

 unequal lengths ; the head is slightly crested ; over the eye is an elegant 

 semicircular comb of rich orange, which the bird has the power of rais- 

 ing or relaxing ; under the neck wings are two loose pendulous and 

 wrinkled skins, extending along the side of the neck for two-thirds of 

 its length, each of which, when inflated with air, resembles, in bulk, 

 color and surface, a middle sized orange ; chin cream-colored ; under 

 the eye runs a dark streak of brown ; whole upper parts mottled trans- 

 versely with black, reddish brown and white ; tail short, very much 

 rounded, and of a plain brownish soot color ; throat elegantly marked 

 with touches of reddish brown, white and black ; lower part of the 

 breast and belly pale brown, marked transversely with white; legs 

 covered to the toes with hairy down, of a dirty drab color ; feet dull 

 yellow, toes pectinated ; vent whitish ; bill brownish horn color ; eye 

 reddish hazel. The female is considerably less, of a lighter color ; 

 destitute of the neck wings, the naked yellow skin on the neck, and 

 the semicircular comb of yellow over the eye. 



On dissecting these birds the gizzard was found extremely muscular, 

 having almost the hardness of a stone ; the heart remarkably large ; 

 the crop was filled with briar knots, containing the larvae of some 

 insect, — quantities of a species of green lichen, small hard seeds, and 

 some grains of Indian corn. 



Genus LVII. PERDIX. 

 Species P. VIRGINIANUS. 



QUAIL, OR PARTRIDGE. 



[Plate XLVII. Fig. 2.] 



Arct. Zool. 318, No. 185. — Catesb. App. p. 12. — Virginian Quail, Tort. Si/sL p. 

 4G0. — Maryland Q. Ibid. — Le Peidrix d'Am^rique, Briss. i., 231. — Buff, ii., 

 447.* 



Tins well known bird is a general inhabitant of North America, 

 from the northern parts of Canada and Nova Scotia, in which latter 

 place it is said to be migratory, to the extremity of the peninsula of 



♦ Tetrao Virginianus, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, p. 161. T. Marilandicus, id. ib. — 

 Perdix Virginiatia, L.\Tn. Ind. Orn. p. 650. P. Marilanda, id. p. 651.— CaiWc de 

 la Louisiane, Blff. /'/. Knl. 149. 



