SUBFAMILY ODONTOPHORINA, 195 
KEY TO THE SPECIES. 
A. Crest very long and mostly straight. 
a. Above: deep olive-brown from crest to l Pee a 
: TRIDGE. 
end of tail-coverts. \ ‘ 
O7 pictus. 
PLUMED PAR- 
6. Above: hind-neck and upper back gray- | TRIDGE, 
ish blue. | O. p. plume- 
Serus. 
c. Above: ashy brown with slight olive- ) iio iene ao 
wash j PARTRIDGE, 
O. p. confines. 
The differences between the last bird and the O. £. Alumiferus, 
as given by its describer, are so very slight, viz. : ‘“‘ grayer upper 
parts and thicker bill,” that an ornithologist would naturally 
hesitate before giving it any separate rank, even a subspecific 
one, until he found characters more decisive and important, that 
would enable the bird to be recognized from its fellows. Relative 
proportions of bills, unless very unusual, are notoriously unreli- 
able, and prove generally to be a most unsatisfactory foundation 
on which to base specific or subspecific forms, and slight shades of 
color are not much more to be depended on. 
GENOGS‘CALLIPEPLA 
(Greek, xadNuremdos, Kallepeplos, beautifully arrayed). 
Callipepla, Wagler. Isis., 1832, p. 277. Type, C. strenua, 
Wagl. = Ortyx sguamatus, Vig. 
Crest full, and short, of two colors blending with feathers of 
the crown. No distinction in plumage of sexes. 
I have included but one species and one subspecies in this 
genus, contrary tothe arrangement of the A. O. U. check list, for 
I cannot satisfy myself that birds so essentially different as the 
Scaled Partridges, and those represented by Gambel’s, the Cali- 
fornia Partridge, etc., can properly be placed in the same genus. 
The crests are entirely different in structure, that of the Scaled 
Partridge being more like thatof Bob White and its allies, while 
