398 PHAPIANID^. 



Oreortyx picta plumlfera, Behling, P. U. S. Nat. Mus. v. p. 533 



(1883) [Cape St. Lucas, Lower Cal.j ; Stephens, Auk, i. p. 355 



(1884) [Colorado desert]. 



Orortyx picta, Coues, Key N. Am. B. p. 591 (1884). 



Oreortyx pictiis plumiferus, A. O. TJ. Check-list, p. 168 (1886) ; 



Ridqiv. Man. p. 191 (1887) ; Toimsend, P. U. S. Nat. Mus. x. 



pp. 199, 235 (1887) [N. California] : Beldiiuj, Occas. Pap. Cal. 



Ac. Sci. ii. p. 9 (1890) ; Bendire, N. Am. B. p. 14, pi. i. figs. 2, 3 



(1892). 

 Oreortyx pictus confinis, Anthony, P. Calif. Ac. Sci. (2) ii. p. 74 



(1889) ; id. Zoe, i. p. 5 (1890) [San Pedro Martir Eange, Lower 



Cal.] ; Bendire, N. Am. B. p. 17 (1892). 



Adult male and female. An occipital crest of two very long black 

 feathers ; top of the head, back and sides of the neck, upper part of 

 mantle (in males and some females) *, chest, and breast slate-grey ; 

 rest of upper parts olive-brown ; the scapulars and outer secondaries 

 margined on the inner web with white more or less mixed with 

 pale rufous ; a white band extending across the chin to the lores ; 

 throat and fore part of neck deep chestnut, margined on either side 

 by a white band, which passes across the basal half of the ear- 

 coverts ; a black patch on the cheek below the eye often continued 

 on the side of the throat in a line between the chestnut and 

 white ; upper part of the belly mostly chestnut ; underparts and 

 vent pale buff; sides and flanks irregularly marked and barred with 

 chestnut, white, and black ; thighs rufous ; under tail-coverts 

 black, with chestnut middles ; tail-feathers dark olive-grey, finely 

 mottled with black. Bill black ; iris, legs, and feet brown. Total 

 length 9-6 inches, wing 5-2, tail 3-3, tarsus 1"4, middle toe and 

 claw 1*6. 



A quite young bird in August has all the upper parts olive- 

 brown, washed with rufous on the inner webs of the scapulars and 

 outer secondaries, and all finely mottled with black and pale buff; 

 many feathers of the mantle have also pale shafts, and the scapulars 

 and some of the wing-coverts are blotched with black ; the chest- 

 nut throat of the adult is black ; the chest and upper breast dirty 

 grey, most of the feathers with pale shafts and whitish spots at the 

 tips ; only a few of the chestnut feathers of the Hanks are beginning 



* Most of the males have the mantle grey, but in some specimens this colour 

 is more or less mixed with olive-brown ; on the other hand, most females have 

 the olive-brown continued up the back of the neck to the crest, but some have 

 the upper mantle more or less washed with grey. I have seen no males with 

 the olive-brown going up to the crest, and no females have the back of the neck 

 and mantle clear grey like the breast ; but several specimens in intermediate 

 plumage belong to both sexes. Ridgway, in his ' Manual,' p. 191, recognizes 

 two subspecies of Oreortyx {0. pictus and 0. -pliimiferus), and uses these sexual 

 characters to distinguish them. He makes out that the brown-necked birds 

 (females) are confined to the Coast-region, while those w:th grey neck and 

 mantle (males) inhabit the Sierra Nevada. But in a good series of speciniens 

 from Carson, Nevada, I find many brown-necked specimens (all females) as 

 well as grey, and from the Coast-region there is about an equal number of 

 each. 



