PIG. 7. PLUMED QUAIL. (0. P. PLUMIFERA). MALE. 



REDUCED 



FROM LIFE BY THE AUTHOR AND 



American Bob-White and Quails 



By DR. R. W. SHUFELDT, C. M. Z. S. 



PART III.-MOUNTAIN QUAILS AND OTHER SPECIES 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR. 



AVING completed my account 

 of the Bob-whites in Parts I 

 and II of the present series of 

 articles, I have next to intro- 

 duce a genus of birds, the mem- 

 bers of which stand 1 among the 

 handsomest of the smaller game fowls any- 

 where in the world. These are the Mountain 

 or Plumed Quails of the Pacific region of 

 the United States, the several forms repre- 

 senting them being included in the genus 

 Oreortyx, of which there is but one species 

 (O. picta) including the three known sub- 

 species. All of these will be described in 

 the present Part, and in Fig. 7 we have a 

 picture from life of one of them, which gives 

 an excellent idea of the representatives of 

 this group (O. picta plumifera). 



Oreortyx means a mountain quail, but it is 

 a badly constructed word, as it not only leaves 

 the gender in doubt, but oros, a mountain, is 



from the Greek, while ortyx is the Latin for 

 a quail the first being masculine and the lat- 

 ter feminine. However, the quails do not seem 

 to mind it, being more concerned about the 

 vicious guns and traps that are now rapidly 

 wiping their beautiful race completely off the 

 map. 



The type subspecies of this genus is the 

 Mountain Quail (O. p. picta}, the subspe- 

 cific name meaning painted or pictured 

 (Latin). It is said to occur, in suitable locali- 

 ties, throughout the "Humid Transition Zone 

 strip of the Pacific coast from southwestern 

 Washington south to Monterey County, Cali- 

 fornia." It also occurs on Vancouver Island 

 as an introduced species. 



We have next the subspecies known as the 

 Plumed Quail (O. p. plumifera) (from the 

 Latin pluma, a plume, and fero, to bear), so 

 called on account of its elegant head plume. 

 Further on I shall give the description of 



