Appendix, 



III. No tufts on throat. 



1. Tail short, with two soft, lengthened 

 feathers ; feet feathered to the toes. 



Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse 6 



2. Tail square ; a comb of naked skin over 

 eye ; black spot on cheek. An inhabitant 

 of the pines. 



Sooty Grouse ... 4 



THE GROUSE, PARTRIDGE AND QUAIL FAMILY 

 OF SCRATCHING BIRDS. 



Birds of swift wing, flying with a loud whirring 

 sound. They obtain their food largely by scratch- 

 ing the ground. They are ranked as game birds 

 and include a number of species familiar to 

 sportsmen. 



I. Mountain-Partridge; Mountain-Quail; Oreor- 

 tyx pictus (Dougl.). 



Head plume long and slender, streaming backward. 

 Length eleven and a half inches. Head lead 

 colored; back olive-brown ; throat chestnut, 

 bordered by a line of white ; breast lead 

 colored or slaty bluish ; sides chestnut, barred 

 with conspicuous markings of black and white. 

 The mountain-partridge, strictly speaking, in- 

 habits the mountains to the north of California, 

 but a race form, differing chiefly in a more 

 grayish olive tone to the back and in a few 

 other minor points, breeds throughout the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains and winters in the foothills 

 and Coast Range. Although known in the 

 books as the plumed partridge, it is everywhere 

 popularly called the mountain-quail. 



264 



