FIG. 12. 



COMMON QUAIL OF EUROPE (COTURNIX COTURNIX). MALE. 

 URAL SIZE. PHOTO FROM LIFE BY THE AUTHOR. 



m 



HALF NAT- 



fourteen feathers the normal number being 

 twelve and less or more constitute excep- 

 tions. It is about four-fifths the length of a 

 wing, and when the feet are stretched out 

 alongside of it, the toes do not reach to 

 its end. 



The male has a deep, jet-black throat and 

 chin, with a white border (Fig. 10). A 

 straight white line from the base of the crest, 

 on either side, backward to the body line. 

 These markings are absent in the hen. 



These few characters will place any one of 

 these quails in the genus, as compared with 

 any of the others found in this country not 

 belonging to Lophortyx. 



Coming next to the subspecies, we find that 

 the male of the California Quail has a minute 

 white stripe running from the eye to the bill 

 (Fig. 10). The top of the head is of a sooty- 

 brown, while the forehead is inclined to be 

 whitish, with minute linear markings of black. 

 Neck feathers speckled with white and with 

 dark edging and shaft-lines. Back, ashy- 

 gray, glossed with brownish-olive, the combi- 

 nation resulting in a beautiful shade and is 

 very conspicuous. Breast, slate-color or a 

 slate-blue. Lower breast, deep tan, becoming 

 an elegant golden brown on the abdomen, 

 where the feathers come to have glossy black 

 edges to them. Flank and sides like the dor- 

 sum, all the feathers being marked by clean- 

 cut longitudinal stripes of white. Crissum 

 and lower abdominal area, tan-brown with the 



longitudinal median stripes of the feathers 

 dark, blackish brown. 



The rich brown color on the abdomen is 

 wanting in the female, and her breast is of an 

 olive-gray. 



Length, ten to eleven inches. Young and 

 chicks have special plumages that need not be 

 described here. 



Sometimes, it is said, this species may 

 build its nest in some shrub or even in a tree; 

 but it usually builds on the ground, as in the 

 case of Gambel's and other quails. Eggs, 

 from ten to twenty, pale buff or creamy in 

 color, blotched and spotted all over with spots 

 of various shades of brown and drab. These 

 are beautifully figured in color in Bendire's 

 work, and the variations they present are 

 truly remarkable. Four specimens, natural 

 size, are shown on the Plate, together with the 

 eggs of all of our other quails a most inter- 

 esting display. 



The Valley Quail (/.. c. vallicola) is the 

 island bird, and when typical specimens are 

 secured, they are found to be subspeci Really 

 perfectly distinct from the last, being lighter 

 in color, grayer on the dorsum and flanks, 

 with some few other color differences, such 

 as the line along the internal edge of either 

 wing being a very pale tan instead of a 

 brownish-olive. 



Coues remarks that no specimens, up to 

 bis time, were taken that exhibited the slight- 



