perdicid.e—odontophorinjE: partridges and quails. 761 



parts producing a shelly or scaly appearance. Sexes nearly alike. Eggs not heavily colored. 

 One U. S. and Mexican species. 



C. squama'ta. (Lat. sqiiamata, squamous, scale-like.) Scaled Partridge. Blue Quail. 

 Adult ^ : General cidor bluish-pluuibeous, shading into olive-brown on back and wings and 

 to rufous on under parts behind wings, with a large abdominal area of pale buff, with little or 

 no orange-brown ; leathers of neck all around, and most of those of under parts, sharply edged 

 with black, producing a peculiar shell-like appearance; on breast the feathers also wnth con- 

 cealed reddisli shaft-lines. Long feathers of sides like back in color, with white brown-edeed 

 stripes or long oval spots. On Hanks and crissum the feathers lose the scaly appearance, be- 

 coming blended rusty-brown, with linear, sagittate, or cordate dark spots. Inner secondaries 

 edged with buff or whitish, affording to folded wing the lengthwise stripe so characteristic of 

 North AiiiericaH Partridges. Quills plain fuscous; tail-feathers plumbeous. No definite 

 stripes about head ; crest of soft blended feathers brown, ending in pure white. Length 10.00- 

 11.00; extent 14.50-1.5.50; wing 4.50; tail 3..50-4.00; tarsus 1.25; middle toe and claw 1.04. 

 9 little different ; head-markings the same ; size rather less. Western Texas, New Mexico, 

 Arizona and southward; generally dispersed, but far less numerous than the top-knot Quails, 

 and more southern. It is mainly a bird of the desert, found in the most arid, cactus-ridden 

 regions, often far from water, sometimes in company with Gambel's Quail. The breeding season 

 extends from March to September; the nest is placed on the ground, and the eggs, 8-10-12-16 

 in number, averaging 1.30 X 1-00, are rather elliptical than conical, creamy white tir pale buff, 

 minutely freckled with buff' of a darker shade, or with various pale brownish spots, usually 

 small, rounded, and uniformly distributed ; tlie general effect being thus quite unlike that of 

 the eggs oi LopJiorti/x. 



C. s. castaiiogas'tris. (Gr. Kaaravos, castanos, Lat. castanea, the chestnut, and hence the 

 peculiar reddish color of the nut; and ydo-T-pt?, grtstris, pot-bellied, from yaarrjp, the belly. 

 The ))referable form of the name would be Castaneirentris, as given in the Key, 3d ed. 1887, 

 p. 885, or castanek enter, as in the British Museum Catalogue, 1893, p. 39ti.) Chestnut- 

 bellied Scaled Partridge. Brewster's Quail. Like the last; general coloration 

 deeper and riclier; crown concolorous with back, and cheeks with breast, both darker than 

 throat; belly of ^ with a conspicuous central patch of uniform chestnut, wanting or scarcely 

 indicated in 9 • Lower Kio Grande Valley of Texas and southward in the lowlands of north- 

 eastern Mexico to San Luis Potosi. Brewst. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, Jan. 1883, p. 34 ; A. 0. U. 

 Lists. 1880 and 1895, No. 293 «. 



CYRTO'NYX. (Gr. Kvpros, kurtos, bent, crooked; ow|, onux, nail, claw.) Harlequin 

 Quail. Bill very stout. Head with a full, soft, depressed occipital crest. Tail very short, of 

 12 soft feathers, almost hidden by coverts, scarcely or not ^ as long as wings. Wing-coverts 

 and inner quills highly developed, folding entirely over prinuiries. Feet small ; tarsus rather 

 shorter than middle toe and claw ; toes short, but with remarkably developed claws. A very 

 distinct genus. Plumage of head of ^ curiously striped ; of under jiarts ocellated. Sexes 

 very unlike. Eggs white, unmarked. 



C. moiitezu'mae. (To Montezuma or Moteczuma II., also called Xocoy<'t?iin, an Aztec war- 

 chief. Emperor nf Mexico at the time of the Spanish Con(|uest, b. 1479, d. at Tenochtitlan 

 (City (tf Mexico), Jime 30, 1.529. Tlie name is a Nahuatl word, meaning "angry chief." 

 Fiir- 514.) Montezuma (^uail. Black Quail. Fool Quail. ^L\ssENA Pakthidoe. 

 Adult (J : Upper parts intimately waved with black and reddish-brown and tawny-brown, and 

 marked with sharp buff or whitish shaft-lines ; ou wings the irregular black variegation chang- 

 ing to black bars and mund spf)ts, in regular paired s<'ri(>s on each feather. (^uttM* (|uills fu.scoiis, 

 their outer webs spotted witii white or buff. Under parts crowded witii innumerable round 

 white spots on a dark ground, several jiairs on each fi'ather; middle line of l)reast and belly 

 mahogany-colored. Hanks, vent, and crissuuj velvety-bhick. Top of head black in front, with 



