THE AMERICAN QUAIL. 



Odontophorida. 



Of true partridges belonging to that family of galli- 

 naceous birds known as Perdicidce there are none in 

 America, but their place is taken by another family, 

 known as Odontophorida, which has a wide distribu- 

 tion, with a number of species in the United States, and 

 a still greater expansion to the southward. 



While the grouse are all large birds, some of them 

 approaching the wild turkey in size, the American par- 

 tridges, or quails as they are commonly called, are all 

 small. The grouse have the lower legs and feet more 

 or less covered with hairlike feathers, and the nostrils 

 also covered with points of feathers reaching out on to 

 the bill, known as antise. The grouse have over the 

 eye a naked strip of skin which in the breeding season 

 becomes to some extent enlarged and congested, so that 

 it is sometimes loosely spoken of as a comb, though it 

 is not a comb like that of the common hen. The Ameri- 

 can partridges on the other hand have the feet and 

 nostrils naked, lack the bare skin above the eye and 

 usually have short tails. The character which distin- 

 guishes them from the partridges of the Old World 

 (Perdicldce) is found in the cutting edge of the mandi- 

 ble, which is toothed or notched. Sometimes this char- 



47 



