PERDICID^E — ODONTOPHORIN^ : PARTRIDGES AND QUAILS. 151 



Analysis of Subspecies. 

 Above extensively glossed over with olive-brown; inner edges of secondaries buff; forehead ashy. Coast region 



northerly picius 



Above restrictedly glossed over with olive-brown ; inner edges of secondaries pale buff ; forehead whitish. Interior 



region, and coastwise southerly . . . . • p. plumiferus 



Like the last ; grayer ; bill thicker. Lower California p. confinii 



O. pic'tus. (Lat. incta, pictured, painted. Fig. 511.) Plumed Partridge. Mountain 

 Quail of the Calit'urniaus. Adult (J 9 • Back, wings, and tail olive-browu ; inner secondaries 



and tertials bordered with buff or tawny, forming a 

 lengthwise border in single line when wings are folded ; 

 primaries fuscous ; tail-feathers fuscous, minutely mar- 

 bled with color of back. Fore-parts, above and below, 

 slaty-gray (above more or less glossed with the olive- 

 brov?n shade of 

 back, below mi- 

 nutely marbled with 

 black) ; throat 



chestnut, immedi- 

 ately bordered lat- 

 (^^^i^^^P* \ ('rally with black, 

 :s^^->=.^^S3^^^^— — then framed in a 

 'i^^MA"^ l^aBU^^ fi"J^ white line, 



'■1" V/mSKW broken through 



^h^^A ''*vl^B around base of 



'' 'i^rail under mandible. 



^V'li ^\ Extreme forehead 



ifiAw ashy. Arrow - 



plumes black. i^^-^;^^^^^*^'^ 



Fio. 510. —Helmet Quail (/-.(7a?)!6eZi),nat. Belly chestnut ; Fio. .511. — Plumed Quail. (From Ten- 



size. (Ad. nat. del. E. C.) sides banded with ney, after Audubon.) 



broad bars of black and white, or rufous-white; middle of lower belly, tibia, and tlanks, whit- 

 ish or rufous; crissum velvety-black, streaked with chestnut. Bill dusky, paler below; feet 

 brown. Length 11.00-12.00; extent lG.00-17.00; wing 5.00-5.50; tail 3.00-3.50; tarsus 

 l.(i0; middle toe and claw about the same. Chicks in down very curiously striped and spotted 

 with black, brown, and chestnut on the head, back, and tlanks, dull whitish on the breast and 

 belly. An elegant species, much larger and more beautiful than B(d) White, inhabiting the 

 mountainous parts of the Pacific coast region from California to Washington; extension in 

 the latter State recent, partly natural, but artificially assisted ; lately introduced also on ^'au- 

 couver Island. The relative extent of the olive and slaty parts is very variable (see following 

 subspecies). There is something of a Grouse in the composition of this Partridge. Egg a 

 miniature of the Kuffed Grouse's, only distinguished by smaller size — 1.40 X l-K' t<i 1.30 X 

 1.00; the clutch is (J-IO, averaging about a dozen, mostly laid in May and June. 

 O. p. plumiferus. (Lat. plumiferus, plume-bearing; lAuma, a plume; fero, to bear, carry.) 

 Plu-MEd Partuid(;e or Mountain Quail of the interior. Like the la.st, with which included 

 in former editions of the Key. Differing in greater extent of the slaty-gray, and corresponding 

 restriction of the olive-brown overtone, the whiti.'^h forehead, and the pale biitT or whitish border 

 line along the inner edge of the wing. In the best marked cases, the back of the neck is tjuite 

 like the breast, instead of Ixing olive-bmwii like the back. This is the prevailing form ou 

 both sides of the Cascade range in Uregoii. the Sierras Nevadas in California, autl even the 



