bottoms of the Colorado river, where they are to be 

 found in abundance. 



The food is practically the same as the California 

 valley quail. 



Color The general color of the upper parts and the 

 breast is lighter and more of an ashy blue than the 

 valley quail, but in its markings the gambel is the 

 more conspicuous and more brilliant. The black throat, 

 bordered with white, the gray forehead and the forward 

 turned plume are common to both, but the top of the 

 head of the gambel is a bright cinnamon red, while that 

 of the valley quail is a sooty brown. The flanks of the 

 gambel are conspicuously marked with bright chestnut 

 brown with each feather with a narrow central stripe 

 of white. 



Nest and Eggs Are the same in this species as in 

 the valley quail. 



Measurements Same as the valley quail. 



THE SCALED QUAIL 



(Callipepla squamata) 



Next in geographical order is the scaled quail of Ari- 

 zona and northern Mexico generally. This, too, is a 

 desert bird which I have seen in great numbers at least 

 twenty-five miles from the nearest water. It is the 

 only member of the quail family where there is no 

 difference in the markings of the sexes, except the 

 mountain quail. In the open country it, too, is a run- 

 ner, though it can not begin to develop the speed of 

 the gambel nor will it continue to run for such long dis- 

 tances. 



During a residence of a year in the state of Chihua- 

 hua, Mexico, where I was developing some mining prop- 

 erty, I found the scaled quail in great numbers all 

 around me. Very few of the Mexican people are wing 

 shots and few hunt except for the resulting meat. Lit- 

 tle attention, therefore, is paid to the quail, and in the 

 section where I was located I do not believe that even 

 the "oldest inhabitant" of the quail settlement had ever 

 heard the report of a shotgun. I had with me a brace 

 of English setters, and these birds, though found among 

 chino grama grass and low maguey plant, which offered 

 splendid opportunities for hiding, not only tried my 

 patience to the limit, but that of my dogs as well, by 

 deliberately walking about twenty-five to thirty paces 

 in front of me without the least thought of either hiding 

 or taking to wing. By firing a couple of shots over them 

 21 



