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The Outer's Book 



est intergradation between this form and the 

 one described above. I may say here that, 

 personally, I have never seen one in my life- 

 time. 



As stated before, Gambel's Quail is a very 

 distinct species, and the male may at once 

 be recognized by the little white stripe be- 

 the beak and eye being absent. Moreover, the 

 forehead is black with fine white linear mark- 

 ings. There is no white speckling on the 

 neck, while the top of the head is of a chest- 

 nut brown. Above, clear ash, which is also 

 the color of the upper breast. A large, glossy 

 black area on the abdomen, which is lacking 

 in the female. Remaining lower parts whitish, 

 tinged with buff, becoming purplish chestnut 

 on the sides, the feathers being striped with 

 white as in the California Quail. Posteriorly, 

 on the crissum, flanks, and hinder abdominal 

 area the feathers are whitish, and the 

 streaks pale ash or even dusky. Irides, brown; 

 bill, deep black. 



In the female the crest is composed of 

 fewer feathers; they are of a dark brown 

 color and do not curl forward as in the male 

 bird. Where the black abdominal area is 

 absent, it is replaced by feathers of_ a dingy 

 white shade, showing medio-longitudinal dark 

 streaks, the whole constituting a character by 

 which the female of this species may at once 

 be recognized. 



The plumages of the young and the chicks 

 are well known, but they need not be de- 

 scribed here, and the same applies to the eggs, 

 which are much like tho5e of the California 

 Quail, only their tone is somewhat heavier. 



We now come to the genus Cyrtonyx, the 

 last of our United States Quails to be de- 

 scribed in these articles. 



The type subspecies of this genus is an 

 extralimital one, being found only in Mexico 

 (C. montezumae montezutnae') ; while our 

 subspecies or Mearns' Quail (C. m. mearnsi) 

 occurs from central Arizona and central New 

 Mexico, eastward to central Texas and south- 

 ward into northern Mexico. This is a big- 

 billed and very remarkable bird with large 

 and extraordinary-looking claws, which last 

 accounts for its generic name (Greek, Kurtos, 

 bent; and onux, a claw). 



As will he observed from Fig. 11 of the 

 present Part, it has a full crest on the occiput 

 composed of soft feathers. There are but 

 twelve feathers in the unusually short tail, it 

 being in life almost entirely concealed by the 

 coverts. Wing-coverts are conspicuously large 

 and quite cover the primaries of the wings. 



The characters of the feet are well shown 

 in my figure, as are also the ocellated body- 

 feathers and the remarkable striping of the 

 head in the male bird. Plumage of the 

 female quite unlike that of the male, and she 

 lays pure white eggs without any markings 

 whatever. One of these latter I figured in 

 The Nidoloz.ist a good many years ago, and 

 Major Bendire also has it in his work. 



Mearns' Quail was named by Nelson, the 



Arctic explorer, in honor of Dr. Edgar A. 

 Mearns of the Army, one of the naturalists 

 who accompanied Colonel Roosevelt upon his 

 African Expedition. 



This bird has the prevailing colors of the 

 back much variegated, they being of a rufous, 

 tan, and some black, the shaft-lines of the 

 feathers being buffy or white. Round black 

 spots and black bars on the wings (Fig. 11), 

 these, on each feather, being regularly paired. 

 Below, the dark feathers are each character- 

 ized by having paired, white, round spots, giv- 

 ing the entire area a white, spotted appear- 

 ance, which is very striking, not to say hand- 

 some. Median line of breast and abdomen, 

 vandyke-brown, while the flanks, sides and 

 area about the vent are shiny black. Occiput, 

 black anteriorly, slightly speckled with white. 

 Crest, brown. Throat, black, and the head 

 striped as shown in Figure 11 with black and 

 white. 



Adult female quite unlike the male indicated 

 in the merging of the markings, and the more 

 general fulvous shade to the feathers. Head 

 shows no peculiar markings, and the throat is 

 either light buff or even whitish. Lower parts 

 lighter, and the feathers generally mottled 

 with white and black. 



A male bird measures about nine inches in 

 extreme length, and has an extent of about 

 seventeen. No one could possibly mistake 

 one of these quails for any other species, and 

 they are generally known on the ranges in 

 New Mexico and Arizona as "fool quail" on 

 account of the reluctance with which they 

 take wing, and what happens to be a stupid 

 fearlessness of man. 



This quail is generally found in wooded 

 districts, ranging up in the mountains for 

 over nine thousand feet. It is by no means 

 gregarious as is the case with other quails, 

 and often only a bird or two will be put up. 

 I have handled it in the flesh only a few 

 times; but I think that, of all the beautiful 

 quails I have ever seen, the male of this 

 species, in full spring plumage, is the hand- 

 somest game bird we have in this country. 



It makes a neat nest on the ground, and I 

 have already referred to the eggs in a former 

 paragraph. 



In closing this account of our United States 

 quails I desire to add a few notes on the 

 Common Quail of Europe. 



Coues gives a description of this species in 

 the last edition of his "Key" (Vol. II, p. 751), 

 illustrating it with a figure from Brehm, which 

 is rather indifferent. These birds I have had 

 alive several times, and my photographs of 

 them are reproduced in figures 12 and 13 of 

 the present Part. My chief object in intro- 

 ducing them here has been to show how little 

 they look like any of our American quails. 

 On this point Coues remarks, after statine 

 that the bird occurs in "Europe. Asia, and 

 Africa," that it has been "recently imported 

 and turned loose in considerable numbers in 

 the U. S., as in New England; but its perma- 



