64 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



to the size of a pinhead. The second was similarly 

 provided, but contained, in lieu of mustard seed, a 

 grasshopper fully an inch in length. These two were 

 taken on the mesa. The third, from a bird taken in 

 the valley, contained about twenty medium-sized red 

 ants, several crescent-shaped seeds, and a large num- 

 ber of small, fleshy green leaves." 



Mr. Brown pointed out, years ago, that the intro- 

 duction of live-stock into southern Arizona bade fair 

 to exterminate the masked bobwhite in that territory, 

 by the destruction of its nests and eggs by horses and 

 cattle, as well as by the eating of the cover among 

 which it lives. His prediction has been verified, and 

 as recently as June, 1909, he wrote, saying: "Colinas 

 ridgwayi is a dead bird so far as Arizona is, as yet, con- 

 cerned, but it is again getting a good foothold in So- 

 nora, about 75 miles south of the line. I am almost 

 afraid to say anything about it, however, as I fear I 

 might send skin hunters into the country." 



Other writers have noted in our common bobwhite 

 the same tendency to disappear in sections where gen- 

 eral farming has given place to stock-raising. 



The bobwhite family attains its greatest development 

 in Mexico. Though differing greatly in color, the pat- 

 tern of that color is somewhat similar in all the differ- 

 ent forms. Several are black, or black mottled with 

 white, on the breast and tail, where our bird is pale in 

 color, just freckled with black. All have the same 

 whistle with which we are so familiar in our own bird, 



