BOBWHITE IN MEXICO 71 
an altitude of about 3,000 feet we passed out of their 
range, and did not find them again until we reached 
the valley of Comitan, on the Guatemalan border, where 
their notes were heard. A few miles farther on, just 
after entering Guatemala, a single female, which proved 
to be quite different from those taken in Mexico, was 
brought me by an Indian. This specimen served as 
the type of the Guatemala bobwhite (Colinus insignis, 
Nelson). Beyond this nothing was learned of them in 
these remote parts. 
“From Comitan Valley we made a long circuit over 
the Guatemalan highlands and reached the Pacific coast 
again, on the border of Chiapas. There, on some grassy 
prairies in the midst of the forested coast plain, a few 
miles back from the sea, we found many bobwhites of 
a previously unknown branch of the family (Colinus 
salvini, Nelson). In this vicinity an attempt was 
made, many years ago, to establish a large colony of 
Americans. They came with great flourish of trum- 
pets and large expectations, but the climate did its 
silent work so effectually that two or three stranded 
relics were all that remained. Over the desolate sun- 
scorched flats near by the same cheery call of the 
quail sounded in the ears of the Mexican oxdrivers 
and muleteers as they carried their cargoes of coffee 
and cacao to the coast, that I heard from many a field 
and thicket over thousands of miles of varied country 
to the north. Among these sturdy little Americans 
there appeared no sign of degeneration, and it was 
pleasanter to meet them than some of my countrymen 
