UPLAND GAME BIRDS: TURKEYS, QUAILS AND PHEASANTS 



545 



ber from ten to eighteen and are the whitest 

 and most pointed of any of the gallinaceous 

 birds. 



The "bob-white" call is seldom heard after 

 the eggs are hatched for in its place another 

 is given that helps keep the family together. 

 They remain together, unless scattered by hunt- 

 ers, until the following spring, never migrat- 

 ing but often moving in from the fields to the 

 wooded bottom lands and alder thickets for the 

 winter. The winters in New York and New- 

 England are often too severe for them for the 

 deep snows cover all the weeds and fruit-bear- 

 ing shrubs and the bob-whites have not learned 

 to mount into the trees and live upon buds as 

 do the grouse. 



The male bob-white can be distinguished 

 from the female by the white throat and band 

 over its eyes, the markings of the female being 

 buff. The bob-whites of Florida are consider- 

 ably smaller and those of Texas are grayer and 

 they have been separated into different races. 

 In Southwestern Arizona and adjacent Mexico 

 lives a curious bob-white with a throat that is 

 black instead of white and with chestnut under- 

 parts. It is called the masked bob-white. 



In the Rocky Mountain region and the Pacific- 

 States, the bob-white is replaced by the Cali- 

 fornia quail. It is a very different looking bird, 

 bluish-gray rather than brown and having its 



AS THE PHEASANT CONCEALED IT 



Here is shown a hen pheasant on its nest in the meadow. None ul the surroundings 

 have been disturbed and the bird is very difficult to see on its nest. 



being 

 head 



AS THE PHOTOGRAPHER REVEALED IT 



The same bird as shown in the preceding picture, but the grass has been pressed 



down all about it. 



adorned by a few curious recurved feathers that are bare 

 at the base and swollen at the tip so as to resemble a jet 

 ornament rather than a crest. In the interior 

 of California and Oregon, the birds are paler 

 and grayer and have been separated into a dif- 

 ferent race and called the valley quaiL In the 

 arid parts of the West from Texas to Southern 

 California, there is a quail quite similar to the 

 California quail but with chestnut flanks. It 

 is called the Gambell's quail. The plumed or 

 mountain quail is a larger bird with a crest 

 of a few straight feathers. It is a shyer bird, 

 seldom coming near habitations, and preferring 

 the open forest or chaparral growth on the 

 mountains. As with the California quail, the 

 birds inhabiting' the humid coast region are 

 much darker and those on the more arid ridges 

 grayer. To distinguish them, the naiiie moun- 

 tain partridge has been given to the former and 

 plumed partridge to the latter. 



Two other quail are found in the West, the 

 scaled partridge and the masked quail. They 

 are found in the desert country from Western 

 Texas to Arizona but the former is much the 

 more abundant. The scaled partridge, blue 

 quail or cotton-top as it is variously called is 

 gray in color, the feathers of the neck and 

 breast edged with black giving it a curious 

 scaled appearance. Partially concealed on the 

 crown is a tuft of white feathers that give it 

 the name of cotton-top. The masked or Mearn's 



