TJic Spnffrd Part ridge. ODf) 



The Spotted Partridge 



{()(io)itophon<s gidldlus) . 

 By R. Suggitt. 



T liavo had no other means of ideiifilyiuLr liiis species 

 tlian Mr O^qlvie-CranCs vtM'v useful liltle liand -liook to the 

 (Jame P.irds. in wliieh tlie disf iiii^niisliin,^- eharaelei'istics arc 

 i,'-iven of evei'v known sp;>ci(^s of (iame-Rird, allhoni,''li 111" 

 whole of th(> phuna.ire is not, in many ca-^c:-, fully desci-ilied. 



Tho c:(nuis Odonlophorus eompri:^es some fourteen .specico 

 and sub-species, the ran.trc of which extends from Southern 

 Mexico to Bolivia. The sexes arc similar in pluma^'c, or 

 with very slii^ht difTcrences. 



Th(> ran,e:e of Odovtophorns guflafus is iriven as 

 I'entral America. South Mexico, to Chiriqui. 



T cannot find any record of this species having teen 

 jn-eviously imported, before I received my first specimen from 

 rarmer Island, off the coast of Campeachy, in June, 1909. 

 Two birds, probably a pair, were being brought over for 

 me, but they proved to be so wild and unmanageable in their 

 ti-a veiling -box on board ship that the larger and brighter- 

 roloui'ed one was killed in its mad efforts to escape, and the 

 one that reached mc had permanently iniured its wings, and 

 in addition always walked with a limp. I released it from its 

 travelling box direct into 'the aviary; it gave a wild scream 

 and rushed into the bushes, and I never saw it again for a 

 week afterwards. This bird never got over its terror of human 

 beings, but it became more reasonable in course of time, and 

 aflerwaids took possession of three or four Californian Quail 

 i.hicks. which it tended and brooded until they needed mother- 

 ing no longer. 



T tliink that this incident points to the bird being a 

 f(Mnal(\ She lived out of doors, summer and winter, until 

 December Gth, 191-2, thrc^ days before I received two more 

 rpccimenr from the same source. 



I fully expected, upon opening the travelling box con- 

 taining the new arrivals, to see two battered, terror-stricken, 

 pieces of birds, but, to my surprise, both stepped calmly 

 out of the box into the flight prepared for their reception, 

 almost perfect in feather and so tame that they would allow 



