THE BIRDS OP NEW JERSEY. 149 



Order GALLING. 



To this group belong the so-called gallinaceous birds or birds allied 

 to the common Chicken, including nearly all the upland game birds of 

 the world. They are mainly terrestrial and usually associate in flocks 

 or coveys after the nesting season is over. 



Family ODONTOPHORID^E. 



THE QUAIL. 



289 Colinus virginianus (Linnaeus). 

 Bob-white, Quail, Partridge. 



PLATE 19. 



Adult male. Length, 9.50-10.50. Wing, 4.30-4.70. Above, chestnut, barred 

 and speckled with black; rump, grayer; inner edges of tertials edged with 

 buff ; wing and tail feathers, gray ; forehead, a band below the eye, and a half 

 collar around the chest, black ; throat and line from bill over the eye and down 

 the side of the neck, white; a band of chestnut below the black half collar; 

 rest of under parts white, tinged with buff and barred with black ; sides, flanks 

 and crissum broadly striped with chestnut. 



Adult female. Similar, but throat and stripes over the eye, buff, and scarcely 

 any black on the head or chest. 



Nest a hollow usually in a field among grass ; eggs, ten to eighteen, white, 

 1.20 x .95. 



Resident, varying in abundance in different years, sometimes nearly 

 exterminated in severe winters. Quail are migratory to some extent, 

 and flights are noticed at Cape May toward the end of October, but 

 the species is always present in the State. In order to prevent its ex- 

 termination sportsmen have introduced birds from the south and 

 southwest, so that it is questionable whether any true unmixed C. vir- 

 ginianus remain. Mr. P. M. Chapman reports a typical Florida Bob 

 White, C. v. floridanus, taken near New York City. 1 



The Bob White is one of our best known game birds, called also 

 Quail in the northern States and Partridge in the south neither of 



1 Abst. Proc. Linn. Soc., N. Y., IV., p. 5. 



