June, 1893.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



91 



I flushed a bird from beneath a small bush 

 about a foot high. 



Examination revealed a depression in the 

 ground in which rested eight creamy white 

 eggs, blotched with brown and lilac. I kit 

 them undisturbed, hoping to find a full set 

 and get the parent bird on my return. J wo 

 days later, when I again visited the spot, the 

 eggs were as I left them and the parent no 

 where in sight, so I was forced to take the 

 incomplete set. This was on April 5, which 

 I think is about the proper date to look for 

 eggs of this species. 



At Walter's station, on the Southern Pa- 

 cific R.R., I found Gambel's Quail quite 

 plentiful and succeeded in taking four more 

 specimens, which, with some taken on the 

 home trip, made a total of nine skins, and 

 one incomplete set of eggs the result of the 

 trip. 



Gambel's Quail is slightly smaller than 

 the Valley Quail {callipcpla califormca 

 vallicola), with a brown crown instead of 

 the ashen gray of the latter. On the breast 

 is a heavy smoky patch which takes the place 

 of the beautifully mottled breast of the Valley 

 species. The whole tone of the bird is lighter, 

 the plume being nearly jet black. The spe- 

 cies ranges in this State as far north as San 

 Gorgonio Pass, where it hybridizes with the 

 Valley Partridge. It also extends through 

 Arizona and New Mexico, but always is found 

 in the vicinity of water. Generally it is shyer 

 than the Valley Quail, but I consider a week's 

 trip after them worth a month's with the 

 latter. Fred. W. Koch. 



Twin Oaks, California. 



J. Parker Norris has added to his cabinet 

 a fine set of four eggs of the Duck Hawk, 

 taken on Mount Tom, Mass., on May 6, 

 i<S93, by H. W. Smith. They are beautiful 

 specimens. 



The Condor, when rising from the earth, 

 always describes circles in the air, and can 

 rise in no other way. 



Malformations in Birds. 



Numerous instances of malformations in 

 birds and mammals have been brought to 

 my notice, but I have never seen a case, 

 aside from this one, in which the capacity 

 of the mouth was curtailed in the slightest 

 degree. \\'e are all familiar with the gap- 

 ing mouths of young birds in the nest, and 

 it would seem to an observer that the chief 

 aim of these nestlings was to open the beak 

 to the widest extent" and engulf the food 

 brought to them by the old birds. Yet if 

 one will but recall the manner of feeding 

 the young in the case of the common Turtle 

 Dove, passenger Pigeon and domestic Pigeon, 

 it will be quickly seen that a wide distension 

 of the mandibles is not always necessary. 

 The young of these species secures its sus- 

 tenance from the crop of the parent birds. 

 The food taken by the old birds is mace- 

 rated and mixed with a milky substance, 

 and is then regurgitated into the mouth of 

 the nestling, as all have obser\'ed. This 

 peculiar process gives rise to the not inapt 

 term " sucking doves." 



One day when hunting for sijccimens in 

 the month of June I saw two Turtle or Mourn- 

 ing Doves, evidently a pair, feeding in a 

 field, and quickly detected a marked pecu- 

 liarity in the manner of one of them. The 

 oddity would not pick up its food in the 

 usual manner of Doves, but invariably 

 dropped its head on the right side and 

 seemed to scoop up the substance. After 

 watching it for a time, I shot it. It was a 

 healthy, well-nourished female, and had re- 

 cently been setting, as absence of abdominal 

 feathers proved, and at the time had young 

 undoubtedly, as indicated by the condition 

 of the crop. 



The whole left side of its bill was closed 

 by a tenacious yet elastic tissue which held 

 the mandibles together. This tissue also 

 covered the tip of the bill and extended 

 three sixteenths of an inch back from the 

 tip on the right side. On the left side there 



