2 Descriptions of New Species of Birds. 



and pale rufous, the two central feathers are darker and more 

 distinctly marked ; throat white, bordered by a narrow line of 

 black, commencing under the eye and becoming broader on the 

 neck in front ; below this the neck is pale dull rufous ; breast 

 and abdomen greyish-white, tinged with pale rufous-yellow, 

 and crossed with rather broad curving bars of black ; sides of 

 the breast and body rufous, with roundish white spots partially 

 encircled with broad markings of black ; under tail coverts 

 rufous, paler at the ends, and marked with arrow heads of 

 black along the shafts ; bill black ; legs and feet yellowish 

 brown in the dried specimen. 



Length of the skin, 8 inches ; wing from flexure, 43 inches ; 

 tarsus, II inches; bill along the ridge, T ^ inch; tail, 2 inches; 

 middle toe and claw, If inch. 



This somewhat resembles 0. Virginianus, but is smaller, and 

 differs also in having the lores white, in being without the con- 

 spicuous dark markings on the back and wings, and the bright 

 chestnut red so prevalent in the upper plumage of that species ; 

 the bill is proportionately longer and narrower, the legs more 

 slender, and the black markings on the abdomen and breast 

 are fully twice as broad. 



Crest rather longer than that of 0. Virginianus. 



This specimen was procured in Texas by Capt. J. P. McCown, 

 from whom 1 received the following note, descriptive of its 

 habits :— 



" I observed one day a covey of Partridges enter a chaparral 

 from a small prairie (above Ringgold Barracks). They seemed 

 so tame that I mistook them for the Massena. I found it diffi- 

 cult to flush them, but finally shot one upon the ground, and as 

 I did not recognise it, preserved the skin (the one now in your 

 possession). I was under the impression that I saw similar 

 birds further up the Rio Grande, when on my last trip through 

 that country, but was unable to attend to them until too late/' 



I have been informed by J. W. Audubon, Esq., that he 

 noticed it in considerable numbers in Western Texas ; in 



