FIG. 11. MEARNS' QUAIL (CYRTONYX M. MEARNSI). MALE. BY THE AUTHOR. 



picture as any one would care to see. It has 

 been given a crest of which no quail in the 

 world ever had the like. 



These various criticisms are made here for 

 the sole purpose of setting forth the several 

 errors they take into account, in that sports- 

 men, naturalists and others may not be led 

 astray by them. Through personal examina- 

 tion any competent ornithologist may satisfy 

 himself of their justness. 



Coues designated the Valley Quails as "Hel- 

 met Quails" for the reason that their "elegant 

 crests" are recurved "helmet-wise." No one 

 else appears to have noticed the resemblance, 

 and so the term has never come into use, in 

 so far as I am aware. 



These California or Valley Quail belong to 

 the genus Lophortyx, the name being derived 

 from two Greek words meaning a crested 

 quail. The bird shown in Fig. 10 is an ex- 

 cellent example of them, and a well known 

 one of the aforesaid genus. Two species 

 make up the latter, that is, L. californica and 

 L. gambeli. 



Lophortyx californica ranges over J;he Pa- 

 cific coast region from Oregon to southern 

 Lower California. It is represented by two 

 sub-species, L. c. californica, the type Califor- 

 nia Quail, it being found throughout the 

 'Humid Transition and Upper Sonoran zones 

 of the Pacific coast reeion. from southwest- 

 ern Oregon south to Monterey County. Cali- 

 fornia; introduced into Vancouver Island, 

 Washington, and Colorado. While the second 



sub-species or the Valley Quail (L. c. valli- 

 cola) occurs in the 'Subarid Upper and Lower 

 Sonoran zones, from the Klamath Lake re- 

 gion, Oregon, south throughout California 

 (except humid coast strip and eastern desert 

 region) to Cape San Lucas, Lower California, 

 and east to mountains of western Nevada.' 



Gambel's Quail is a distinct species and a 

 very well known one to sportsmen In Cali- 

 fornia. It was named for William Gambel, 

 the naturalist, as long ago as 1843. It is said 

 to range throughout the 'Lower Sonoran des- 

 ert region of southern California, southern 

 Nevada, Arizona, and southwestern Utah, 

 east of the southwestern corner of Colorado, 

 and also in southwestern New Mexico to the 

 Rio Grande Valley and the El Paso region 

 of extreme western Texas, and south into 

 northeastern corner of Lower California and 

 to Guaymas, Sonora.' 



As elsewhere stated, this bird often asso- 

 ciates in flocks with the Scaled Quails on the 

 borders of deserts, and so forth, and in Cali- 

 fornia many know the species as the Top-knot 

 Quail. 



Any birds of the genus Lophortyx may be 

 known by the form of their crests, as shown 

 in Fig. 10 of this Part. This crest may de- 

 velop to become an inch in length, being 

 composed of six or seven glossy black, imbri- 

 cated feathers, there generally being fewer in 

 the crest of the female. As a matter of fact, 

 she is smaller than the male and her plumage 

 is quite different. The tail has from ten to 



576 



