

BOB WHITES, GROUSE, ETC. 



(Family Tetraonidce) 



Bob White 



(Colinus -virginianus) 



Called also: QUAIL; PARTRIDGE; VIRGINIA PARTRIDGE 



Length 9.5010 1 0.50 inches. 



Male and Female Upper parts reddish brown or chestnut, flecked 

 with black, white, and tawny; rump grayish brown, finely 

 mottled, and with a few streaks of blackish ; tail ashy, the 

 inner feathers mottled with buff; front of cro^wn, a line from 

 bill beneath the eye, and band on upper breast, black; fore- 

 head, and stripe over the eye, extending down the side of the 

 neck, white; breast and under parts white or buff, crossed 

 with irregular narrow black lines; feathers on sides and 

 flanks chestnut, with white edges barred with black. The 

 female has forehead, line over the eye, and throat, buff, and 

 little or no black on upper breast. Summer birds have 

 blacker crowns and paler buff markings. Much individual 

 variation in plumage. 



Range " Eastern United States and southern Ontario, from south- 

 ern Maine to the south Atlantic and Gulf states; west to cen- 

 tral South Dakota, Nebraska; Kansas, Oklahoma and eastern 

 Texas. Of late years has gradually extended its range west- 

 ward along lines of railroad and settlements; also introduced 

 at various points in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, 

 California, Oregon, and Washington. Breeds throughout 

 its range." A. p. U. 



Season Permanent resident. 



Endless confusion has arisen through the incorrect local 

 names given to the Bob White, which in New England is called 

 quail wherever the ruffed grouse is called partridge, and called 

 partridge in the middle and southern states wherever the ruffed 

 grouse is called pheasant; but true partridges and quail, quite 



261 



