'iStd I Ridgway on Variation in Oreortyx pictus. IQ^ 



Mus., vol. xxii, p. 398, foot-note), ignoring the former character, 

 remarks as follows : — 



' 'Most of the males have the mantle gray, but in some speci- 

 mens this colour is more or less mixed with olive-brown ; on the 

 other hand, most females have the olive-brown continued up the 

 back of the neck to the crest, but some have the upper mantle 

 more or less washed with gray. / have seen no males with the 

 olive-brown going up to the crest, and no fctnales have the 

 back of the neck a?id mantle clear gray like the breast [italics 

 mine] ; but several specimens in intermediate plumage belong 

 to both sexes. Ridgway, in his 'Manual,' p. 191, recognizes two 

 subspecies . . . and uses these sexual characters to distinguish 

 them. He makes out that the brown-necked birds (females) 

 are confined to the Coast-region, while those with gray neck and 

 mantle (males) inhabit the Sierra Nevada. But in a good series 

 of specimens from Carson, Nevada 1 , I find many brown-necked 

 birds (ail females) as well as gray, and from the Coast-region 

 there is about an equal number of each." 



To show that Mr. Ogilvie-Grant entirely misunderstands my 

 diagnosis of O. p. plumiferus, I quote the following from p. 191 

 of my 'Manual' : — 



"«'. Above deep olive-brown or umber, this color usually' 1 continued 

 uninterruptedly over hind-neck to the crest; inner edges of ter- 

 tials deep buff or ochraceous; forehead entirely ashv. Hab. 

 Pacific coast district, from San Francisco north to Washington 

 Territory. 292. O. pictus (Dough). Mountain Partridge. 



"a 2 . Above grayish olive, the hind neck usually' 1 partly or wholly plumbe- 

 ous, like the breast; inner edges of tertials light buff or buffy 

 whitish; forehead distinctly paler (often whitish) anteriorly. 

 Hab. Sierra Nevada (both sides) from Oregon southward; 

 southern coast district of California? Lower California? 



292 a. O pictus plumiferus (Gould). Plumed Partridge." 



1 It would be interesting to know where these specimens are and what the author 

 considers a "good series." Only two specimens from Carson are mentioned in the 

 list of specimens in the British Museum Collection. 



2 Not italicized in the original, but it should be noted that I was careful to indicate 

 that the character in question was not constant ! 



