Vol. XXI-] Brown, Masked Bob-white. 211 



1904 J 



describe the feelings of myself and American companions when 

 we first heard the call bob white. It was startling and unexpected, 

 and that night nearly every man in camp had some reminiscence 

 to tell of Bob-white and his boyhood days. Just that simple call 

 made many a hardy man heart-sick and homesick. It was to us 

 Americans the one homelike thing in all Sonora, and we felt thou- 

 sands of miles nearer to our dear old homes in the then far distant 

 States. The omnipresent hope of "striking it rich" has made 

 life's burden light to many a weary man, and when the ' Perdice ' 

 made its sweet call only those who have been similarly circum- 

 stanced can appreciate it as we did. Then, though but a young 

 man, I had spread my blankets over much of the frontier West, 

 and no one felt that letter from home more than I did. This I 

 know has but little to do with the subject at issue, but I wish to 

 show my familiarity with the bird at the time its identity was later 

 called into question. True, I believed it to be Ortyx virgianianus, 

 "the Bob-white of the States," the same bird I had known as a 

 boy in West Virginia, and as such I called attention to its being in 

 Arizona. 



In the spring of 1884 a man by name of Andrews, then living in 

 the foothills of the eastern slope of the Barboquivaris, brought me 

 a pair of these quail to Tucson. As I was on the point of leaving 

 town for a business trip through the Territory I took the birds to 

 the office of a friend and he promised to make them up as best he 

 could for me. I then wrote a note to ' The Citizen,' a newspaper 

 with which I was connected, stating that a pair of Bob-white Quail 

 had been brought in, and so on. This note was subsequently 

 republished in 'Forest and Stream,' where it was seen by Mr. 

 Robert Ridgway, of Washington. He replied that there was no 

 such thing as a Bob-white in Arizona and that the writer of ' The 

 Citizen ' article had probably mistaken some other well known 

 form of quail for them. On being advised of this by Dr. Geo. 

 Bird Grinnell, editor of ' Forest and Stream,' I went to my friend 

 for the skins he had promised to make for me. To my regret 

 I learned that the birds had been allowed to spoil and were then 

 thrown out. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately as it turned out 

 afterwards, portions of the birds were still to be had. These, 

 through the kindness of Dr. Grinnell, were sent to Mr. Ridgway 



