THE PLUMED PARTRIDGES. I If) 



ina7itle^ and breast slate-grey ; rest of upper-parts mostly olive- 

 brown ; throat and fore-neck deep chestnut margined by a 

 white band ; a black patch on the cheek ; belly chestnut, shad- 

 ing into pale buff; flanks barred with chestnut, white, and 

 black. Total length, 9*6 inches ; wing, 5*2 ; tail, y2> > tarsus, 

 1*4; middle toe and claw, r6. 



Adult Female. — Differs as a rule in having the olive-hrown con- 

 tinued up the hack of the fieck to the crest, but in some examples 

 the upper mantle is more or less washed with grey. 



Range. — Western States of North America ; extending north- 

 wards to Washington Territory, southwards through California 

 to Capa St. Lucas, and westward to Eastern Nevada. 



Habits. — Mr. Charles A. Allen, writing to Captain Bendire, 

 says : — " I find this Partridge all through the Sierras. In the 

 spring many go up to the snow-line, returning in the fall below 

 the point of snowfall. These vertical migrations are performed 

 entirely onfoot^ unless streams must be crossed, when they take 

 to their wings, but alight at once on gaining the opposite side, 

 and continue their travels on foot." 



Captain Bendire writes : — ^' The mating season begins in the 

 latter part of March and the beginning of April, according to 

 latitude and altitude. The call-note of the male is a clear 

 whistle, like ' whu-ie-whu-ie,' usually uttered from an old stump, 

 the top of a rock, or a bush. When alarmed, a note like 'quit- 

 quit' is used. In the higher mountains but a single brood is 

 raised ; but in the lower foot-hills they rear two broods occa- 

 sionally, the male caring for the first one while the female is 

 busy hatching the second. 



" I met with a brood of young birds, perhaps a week or ten 

 days old, near Jacksonville, Oregon, on June 17, 1883. The 

 male, in whose charge they were, performed the usual tactics 

 of feigning lameness, and tried his very best to draw my atten- 

 tion away from the young, uttering meantime a shrill sound 

 resembling ' quaih-quaih,' and showed a great deal of distress, 



