'388 



Scott on ike Birds of ArizoTur. (J"'y 



The birds remain in flocks in the region of the Catalina Mountains, 

 where I live, till as late as the middle of April, when thej gradually break 

 up into pairs to assume their family duties. 



The only nest I have found was at an altitude of about 3500 feet. This 

 was on the 20th of May, 18S5. There was little attempt at a nest, but 

 simply a slight depression in the sand, lined with a few coarse grasses 

 under a small cat-claw bush. There were eleven nearly fresh eggs that 

 so closely resemble those described by Dr. Coues (see Birds of the 

 Northwest, p. 443) that fiu-ther description is unnecessary. It may be 

 well in this connection to call attention to the extreme thickness of the 

 shells of the eggs. 



I have taken birds of the year in the saine locality that had not yet com- 

 pleted the moult from the nest plumage as late as the middle of October, so 

 that probabl}' several broods are raised. 



The birds, whether in flocks or singly, are shy and difficult to approach, 

 and it is no easy matter to overtake a flock when they are alarmed and 

 begin to run as a method of escape, instead of flying. The call-note of 

 the birds after being scattered reminds one in a way of tlie note of the 

 Guinea Fowl, only that it is not so loud nor continuous. 



[Mr. Scott's collection includes a series of 41 specimens, collected chiefly 

 in March and November. The sexes are about equally represented, and 

 show no sexual difference in plumage, the lightest and the darkest birds 

 being respectively just as often males as females. The fall specimens have 

 a little stronger tinge of buff' below and are a little darker generally than 

 those taken in the spring. Mr. Sennett's series of 80 specimens of C. 

 squamata casta7togastr{s^ taken in Southern Texas (Lower Rio Grande), 

 average much darker, and are further distinguished by the abdominal 

 chestnut patch, which forms the chief diagnostic feature of this form. The 

 darker Arizona specimens, however, can not in some instances, be dis- 

 tinguished from some of the Texas specimens. In other words, were the 

 labels removed, it would be impossible to give their origin, or to refer 

 them to one race rather than to the other. Yet the Texas series compared 

 side by side as a whole with the Arizona series contrasts strongly with 

 the latter, through the deeper tone of all the colors, regardless of the dis- 

 tinctive abdominal patch and stronger rufous suft'usion below. — ^J. A. A.] 



48. Callipepla gambeli. Gambel's Partridge. — GambeFs Qiiail is 

 so commonly distributed throughout the entire region here considered, 

 below an altitude of 5000 feet, that a few words as to breeding time 

 and certain seasonal movements will suffice. In the winter months 

 it rarel}' ranges above 4000 feet in the Catalina region, but during 

 the warmer portion of the year many pairs range as high as 5000 

 feet, though the point in altitude where it is most abundant at all 

 times is fully 1500 feet lower. It is common, too, in the immediate 

 vicinity of streams, a point where I have never met with C. squamata. 

 Bv the middle of April, on the San Pedro slope of the Catalina mountains, 

 most of the bii'ds are paired, and breeding has fairly begun, though I have 

 data of flocks seen as late as April 13. About Tucson the breeding season 



