Vol. XXXIII 

 1915 J 



Phillips, New England Bob-white. 



205 



Storey Fay brought many quail from his place near Savannah, Ga., 

 and liberated them on the Cape (Falmouth?) in the late fifties. 

 It is well known that at least some of the quail of Cape Cod are 

 small and dark colored, and three male specimens taken at Ware- 

 ham, Mass. (Bangs Coll. Nos. 4196, 1059, and 3347) between 1882 

 and 1901 are very heavily barred on the flanks and breast, like 

 birds from Georgia and So. Carolina. On the other hand two 

 specimens from the same collection and locality, nos. 1060 and 

 11492 are typical northern birds and these bear the dates 1882 and 

 1904. On measuring these skins I find that the three dark males 

 from Wareham have a wing average of only 110 mm., while the two 

 normal females from the same place average 114.5 mm. In other 

 words there is evidence that the native and imported birds may 

 have existed side by side and kept their identity, for a time at least. 

 In Mr. Brewster's collection there are some fine specimens taken 

 near Boston between 1871 and 1891. These show no trace of 

 imported blood. The largest specimen has a wing of 120 mm., 

 being far larger than any of the specimens in the collection of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, either from New England, the 

 Atlantic States, or the Dakota-Missouri region. In measuring 

 these skins I divided them into three regions: 1st, Old New Eng- 

 land, 2nd, Virginia to So. ( Carolina, 3rd, the western area, including 

 Indian Territory, So. Dakota, Kansas and Missouri, 4th, a series 

 from the Thayer museum at Lancaster representing Maryland, 

 Virginia, and localities near Washington, and lastly another lot 

 from the same collection taken at Sing Sing, New York. 



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