-BELLIED SCALED QUAIL (CALLIPEPLA 

 LIFE BY THE AUTHOR 



CASTANOQASTRIS). FROM 



These birds lay buff-colored eggs, and oth- 

 erwise present habits of the Quails in general 

 with special ones pertaining to the genus. 

 Much has been published about them, espe- 

 cially in Pacific Coast literature, and to this 

 the reader is referred for further accounts of 

 their life histories. No one with the ordi- 

 nary powers of an observer could possibly 

 mistake any of the "Mountain Quails" for 

 any one of the "Valley" species, as for in- 

 stance the California Quail of the genus 

 Lophortyx, an example of which I here pre- 

 sent in Fig. 9 of this Part, a most gentle little 

 bird which I photographed a number of times 

 while it was in my possession. 



Our next genus contains the "Scaled 

 Quails," and the name Callipepla (Wagler) 

 has been bestowed upon it, which is a term 

 from the Greek and means beautifully ar- 

 rayed (KalUpeplas}. 



These birds have long tails composed- of 

 fourteen feathers an unusual number for 

 quails. The sexes are very much alike, and 

 both have the emarginated feathers of the 

 lower parts, giving that scaled or shelled 

 appearance which suggested the specific name 

 for the genus (Latin squamata, like a scale). 

 They are forms which occur on the southern 

 boundaries of the United States, the range 

 of the Scaled Quail (C. s. squamata) having 

 been given as "Upper and Lower Sonoran 

 Zones from central Arizona to western Texas, 



north to southern Colorado, and over the 

 most part of the Panhandle of Texas, east 

 nearly to central Texas, and south to the 

 valley of Mexico;" while the Chestnut-bellied 

 Scaled Quail occurs in the "Lower Sonoran 

 Zone of southern Texas, from Eagle Pass 

 and San Antonio south to northern parts of 

 Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas." 



These Scaled Quails are desert forms, and 

 the sexes are more or less alike the female 

 being somewhat smaller with a trifle duller 

 plumage. They average about ten or eleven 

 inches in length, and have an alar extent of 

 over fourteen inches. 



The Scaled Quail is of a general slaty-blue 

 color, including the soft crest of the head 1 , 

 which latter terminates in pure white (Fig. 

 8). On the back and wings the gray shades 

 into an olive-brown, becoming redder, pos- 

 teriorly, beneath the wings. Abdomen buffy 

 and pale-colored. Feathers of neck and lower 

 parts black emarginated, producing the afore- 

 said scaled 1 appearance. Like the dorsum, the 

 elongated flank feathers are of an olive- 

 brown, with long oval white spots marking 

 each feather, these, in some cases, resem- 

 bling stripes with edgings of brown. Poste- 

 riorly, on the flanks and under tail-coverts the 

 feather-emarginations gradually disappear or 

 become very faintly marked, arrow or heart- 

 shaped markings taking their place. When 

 the wings are closed, either one presents the 



481 



