482 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Mr. Xantus found this Quail breeding in great abundance at Cape St, 

 Lucas. In one instance he found four eggs on the bare sand, under a pile 

 of driftwood, without any trace of a nest. In another, three eggs were 

 found on the bare ground, under a fallen cactus. In a third case there were 

 nine eggs, also laid on the bare ground, but in the shade of a jasmine-bush. 

 They were frequently found sheltered under piles of driftwood. 



The eggs of this Quail are subject to great variations in marking, and also 

 differ somewhat in size. They are sharply pointed at one end and rounded 

 at the other. One egg, measuring 1.30 in length by 1.00 in breadth, has a 

 ground-color of a creamy white, freckled with markings of a uniform shad- 

 ing of an olivaceous-drab. Another, measuring 1.22 by .91 inches, has the 

 ground-color of the same, but the markings are larger and more confluent, 

 and their color is a rusty drab. A third is 1.18 by .95 inches ; ground-color 

 a creamy white marked by large scattered spots of a chestnut-brown. 



Lophortyx gambeli, Gambel. 



GAMBEL'S QUAIL. 



Loplwrtyx gambeli, "Nuttall," Gambel, P. A. N. S. Philad. I, 1843, 260. — McCall, 

 P. A. N. S. V, June, 1851, 221. — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 645. — Ib. Mex. B. II, 

 Birds, 22. — Dresser, Ibis, 1866, 28 (Rio Grande to Nueces ; breeds). — Coues, P. A. 

 N. S. 1866, 94 (Fort Whipple, Arizona). — Ib. Ibis, 1866, 46 (habits). — Gray, Cat. 

 Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 79. — Heerm. P. R. R. R. X, C, 19. — Ib. X, *S^, 60. — Cooper, 

 Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 553. Callipepla gambeli, Gould, Mon. Odont. pi. xvii. — Cass. 

 Illust. I, II, 1853, 45, pi. ix. Callipepla venusta, Gould, P. Z. S. XIV, 1846, 70. 



Sp. Char. General color cinereous ; abdomen plain whitish ; inner or upper webs of 

 tertials broadly edged with white. Elongated feathers of the sides bright chestnut with 

 a medial streak of white. 



Male. The ash on the breast of a bluish cast, and the whitish of the belly strongly 

 tinged with yellowish-buff, especially anteriorly ; abdomen with a black patch. Anterior 

 half of the head, and whole throat, deep black, bordered posteriorly with two broad, well- 

 defined stripes of white, — the upper of these crossing the middle of the vertex and run- 

 ning backward above the auriculars to the occiput ; the other beginning at the posterior 

 angle of the eye and running downward. Vertex and occiput bright rufous, bounded 

 anteriorly and laterally with black. Crest of black elongated, club-shaped, and con- 

 siderably recurved feathers, springing from the vertex just behind the black bar, one and 

 a half inches long. Wing, 4.70; tail, 4.30; bill, .50 long, and .25 deep; tarsus, 1.15; 

 middle toe, 1.15. 



Female. Head plain grayish, without white, black, or rufous ; no black on abdomen, 

 which also lacks a decided buff tinge ; the cinereous of breast without bluish cast. Crest 

 dusky, less than one inch long. Wing, 4.55 ; tail, 4.20. 



Young. Upper parts ashy brown, minutely and indistinctly mottled transversely with 

 dusky ; scapulars and wing-coverts with white shaft-streaks, the former with pairs of 

 dusky spots. Breast and sides with obsolete whitish bars on an ashy ground. 



Chick. Dull sulphur-yellowish ; a vertical patch, and two parallel stripes along each 

 side of the back (four altogether), black. (Described from Grayson's plate.) 



Hab. Colorado Valley of the United States; north to Southern Utah, and east to 

 Western Texas. 



