THE TEXAN BOB WHITE. 9 



detached live oaks standing in the prairies. It is cool there in the hottest 

 weather, and the birds know it. They are easily approached then, and are 

 often killed by the dozen at such times by so-called sportsmen, though they 

 are in poor condition and molting plumage. The favorite nesting site of the 

 Texan Bob White is a bunch of sedge grass. A slight cavity is made in the 

 center, this is lined with a few straws and arched over with similar material. 

 Sometimes a covered way or tunnel leads to the entrance of the nest. Occa- 

 sionally a nest is placed under a bush and not covered or arched." 



Two broods are usually raised in a season, and even three at times. The 

 average number of eggs to a set is about fifteen. Full sets of eggs have been 

 found as early as May 3, and again late in September. Mr. Singley met with a 

 covey of young just hatched September 22. He also found five eggs of this 

 species in the nest of a domestic hen, not over 30 yards from the house. A 

 nest with nineteen eggs when first found, contained ten additional ones five days 

 later, proving conclusively that it was occupied by two birds. Only one incu- 

 bated, however. Mr. H. P. Attwater found as many as thirty-three eggs in a 

 nest of the Texan Bob White on May 14, 1889, near San Antonio, Texas. 

 This set is now in the collection of Mr. Samuel B. Ladd, of Westchester, Penn- 

 sylvania. While examining this collection I was shown a very peculiar set of 

 nine eggs, taken on May 16, 1889, by the above-mentioned collector, near the 

 same place. These eggs, while of the usual shape and color, are all more or 

 less spotted and streaked with pale reddish brown and lilac shell markings, 

 principally about the larger end. The nest from which they were taken was 

 found in a cornfield. 



The eggs of the Texan Bob White are in no way different from those 

 of Colinus virginianus. The average measurement of fifty-nine specimens in 

 the U. S. National Museum collection is 30 by 24 millimetres; the largest egg 

 measuring 31.5 by 24.5, the smallest 27.5 by 22 millimetres. On account of 

 the similarity of these eggs to those of the preceding subspecies none are 

 figured. 



4. Colinus virginianus cubanensis GOULD. 



CUBAN BOB WHITE. 



Ortyx cubanensis GOULD, Monograph of the Odontophorinfe, 1850, PI. 2. 

 Colinus virginianus cubanensis RIDGWAY, Marmal North American Birds, 1887, p. 188. 



(B , C , E , C , U 289c.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE: Cuba and southwestern Florida. 



This slightly smaller and darker colored bird than Colinus virginianus flori- 

 danus, is found in limited numbers in southwestern Florida, south of Lake Okee- 

 chobee and Tampa Bay. Specimens from Miami, Dade County, on the east coast, 

 are intermediate between this and the Florida Bob White. Dr. Jean Gundlach 

 reports it as common on the Island of Cuba, and says: "It is not found at any- 

 time in the heavy forests, but along their outskirts, in the bushes and under- 



