FAMILY PHASIANIDAE 313 



grown bird that could not rise over a 6-meter bank, at the abrupt 

 angle necessary from its point of take-off. Bobwhites usually are 

 more common than the small numbers ordinarily seen may indicate, 

 as may be learned following heavy rains that soak the vegetation, as 

 then they tend to feed more in the open. 



Males begin to call toward the end of January, a 3-noted whistle, 

 ah-hoh-white, in a tone familiar to those who know the quail in the 

 eastern half of the United States, but uttered much more rapidly. I 

 have assumed that like the northern species males of those found 

 in Panama whistle until they have found a mate and then cease, 

 since I have heard them rather infrequently in relation to the amount 

 of time that I have traveled in their haunts. The mating season may 

 vary locally, as I have recorded males calling as early as January 29 

 (near Bejuco) and as late as June 20 (near Penonome) . 



In addition to this whistle of the males, both sexes have a 

 variety of soft calls that serve to hold together the individuals that 

 compose the little flocks. A louder sound, high-pitched and rather 

 querulous, resembles the syllables ka kwee, ka kwee, heard often 

 when a covey has become scattered. 



They appear to nest at the beginning of the rainy season, as I 

 saw young nearly grown near Sona at the end of May. 



Schonwetter (Handb. Ool., pt. 4, 1961, p. 223) says that eggs 

 of Colinus cristatus, as represented by the typical race C. c. cristatus, 

 and the subspecies leucotis and sonnmi,a.\\ of northern South America, 

 are cream-colored, spotted and blotched, often very heavily, with 

 shades of brown. While those of the Panamanian race are not at 

 present known, it seems probable that they are similar. 



As a species Colinits cristatus has an isolated colony with two sub- 

 species in the western half of the Pacific slope in Panama and then 

 appears again in northwestern Colombia to range through Venezuela, 

 and south to northern Brazil, including the islands of Aruba, Curagao, 

 and Margarita. Two subspecies are found in Panama, and in the 

 South American range 7 additional races are recognized. All agree in 

 form of the crest and general size but differ in details of depth and 

 extent of the color found in their plumage. All live in open regions 

 of scrub and savanna with limited rainfall. The populations of 

 western Panama thus are isolated from the range of their close 

 relatives by the great forests of Darien and the Atrato basin. It 

 seems curious that these quail are not known in the savanna country 

 between the city of Panama and the lower Rio Bayano. 



An allied species, Colinus leucopogon, found from Guanacaste in 

 western Costa Rica northward through western Nicaragua, western 



