THE COLINS OR BOB-WHITES. 1 39 



account of greater security from the atlacks of beasts and 

 birds of prey. They become much attached to the locaHties 

 where they breed, and seldom wander far from these, even 

 when much persecuted. I have known cases where they were 

 hunted day after day until their number was reduced to two 

 or three birds to each covey, yet those which were left could 

 always be found at their old places of resort. The localities 

 they like best are open woods grown up with sand palmettes 

 or low bushes, or fields with woods near them, and they are 

 particularly fond of slovenly cultivated grounds that have 

 bushes and weeds growing thickly along their borders.'" 



Nest and Eggs. — Similar to those of O. vl?'ginia?ms. 



SUB-SP. /?, THE TEXAN COLIN. ORTYX TEXANUS. 



Oriyx iexamis^ Lawrence, Ann. Lye. N. York, vi. p. i. (1853); 

 Baird, B. N. Amer. p. 641, pi. xxiv. (i860); Ogilvie- 

 Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 419 (1893). 



CoUniis virginia7ius texa?ius, Bendire, N. Am. B. p. 8 (1892). 



Adult Male. — Differs from O. vh-giniamis and O.JloridamiS 

 in having the feathers of the mantle barred and mottled with 

 pale rufous and black, and indistinctly edged with grey ; as in 

 the former, the black band round the base of the white throat 

 is Jiarroice?'* but, like the latter, the black bars on the under- 

 parts are coarser and more marked. Measurements the same. 



Adult Female. — Like the female of O. floridanus^ but the 

 general colour of the upper-parts \'s> greyer and paler. 



Range. — Southern and Western Texas, and North-east and 

 Western Mexico. 



Habits. — The Texan Bob-White is a resident in the greater 

 part of Texas, excepting the so-called Staked Plains in the 

 north-western part of the State. Li Eastern Texas it intergrades 



* There are two males in the British Museum collection with a large 

 black patch covering the chin and middle of the throat. These are 

 apparently mere individual varieties. 



