AMERICAN ORNIIHOLOGY. 67 



GAMBEL'S PARTRIDGE. 



A.. O. \/. JWo. 295. {CalUpepla gambelli.) 



RANGE. 



Principally Texas, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, breeding through- 

 out its range. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length, 10 inches; extent, 15.5 inches; tail, 4.5 inches. Bill black. 

 Legs and feet brownish. Eye brown. 



Male. — Top of head bright chestnut, bordered with black on the sides. 

 Crest black.'^2.^^o''fl^t'^l'J> grayish black and separated fronr the chestnut by 

 a^narrow white line which crosses the crown and continues down the side 

 of 'the neck.'o^ Chin, throat, and sides of the head below the eye, black, 

 bordered with white. Entire upper parts, including the wings and tail 

 bluish gray. Wings tinged with olive, the inner webs of the secondaries 

 edged with white. l Breast, bluish gray shading to buff on the lower side. 

 Abdomen'yblack. ^Flanks bright chestnut, each feather having a white 

 stripe in the center. 



Female. — Back tinged with 'brown. Head brownisli. Crest gray. 

 Throat buff, changing to gray on the breast, and again to buff below. 

 Wings and^flanks as in the male but duller. 



NEST AND EGGS. 



The nest of Gambel's Partridge is usually simply a hollow scratched out 

 in the sand, though occasionally it is lined with a few grasses. It is gen- 

 erally 'concealed either under a pile of brush, or beside a clump of grass, 

 the tops of which bend down so as to hide it from view. 



The eggs are laid during May, June, and July, the bird frequently rais- 

 ing two broods in a season. They are from eight to sixteen in number; 

 although frequently as manv as twenty-four are found in the same nest, 

 being without doubt the product of two birds. They have a cream colored 

 ground and are blotched and spotted with chfstnut, drab and buff. 



HABITS. 



This regal looking bird, with his respects, however, he is far super- 

 black feathered crest, is the hand- ior -to his eastern cousin, if the 

 somest of the western partridges, eastern sportsmen who are worry- 

 with the possible exception of his ing their brains about the future of 

 near relative, the California Part- the Bob-white, would only send some 

 ridge. Although a very distinguish- of them out west to take a few les- 

 ed appeajing bird, 1 do not think in sons in tactics from Gambel's Part- 

 point of beauty alone he outranks ridge, they would on their return 

 the eastern Bob-white. In some be much better qualified to escape 



