THE COLINS -OR BOB-WHITES. 139 
account of greater security from the attacks of beasts and 
birds of prey. They become much attached to the localities 
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. virginfanus. 
SUB-SP. 6. THE TEXAN COLIN. ORTYX TEXANUS. 
Ortyx texanus, Lawrence, Ann. Lyc. N. York, vi. p. i. (1853); 
Baird, B. N. Amer. p. 641, pl. xxiv. (1860); Ogilvie- 
Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxil. p. 419 (1893). 
Colinus virginianus texanus, Bendire, N. Am. B. p. 8 (1892). 
Adult Male—Differs from O. wirginianus and O. floridanus 
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 narrower,* 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 is greyer and paler. 
Range.—Southern and Western Texas, and North-east and 
Western Mexico. 
Habits.—The Texan Bob-Whitc is a resident in the greater 
part of Texas, excepting the so-called Staked Plains in the 
north-western part of the State. In 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. 
