BOBWHITE IN MEXICO ?1 



an altitude of about 3,000 feet we passed out of their 

 range, and did not find them again until we reached 

 the valley of Comitan, on the Guatemalan border, where 

 their notes were heard. A few miles farther on, just 

 after entering Guatemala, a single female, which proved 

 to be quite different from those taken in Mexico, was 

 brought me by an Indian. This specimen served as 

 the type of the Guatemala bobwhite (Colinus insignis, 

 Nelson). Beyond this nothing was learned of them in 

 these remote parts. 



"From Comitan Valley we made a long circuit over 

 the Guatemalan highlands and reached the Pacific coast 

 again, on the border of Chiapas. There, on some grassy 

 prairies in the midst of the forested coast plain, a few 

 miles back from the sea, we found many bobwhites of 

 a previously unknown branch of the family (Colinus 

 satvini, Nelson). In this vicinity an attempt was 

 made, many years ago, to establish a large colony of 

 Americans. They came with great flourish of trum- 

 pets and large expectations, but the climate did its 

 silent work so effectually that two or three stranded 

 relics were all that remained. Over the desolate sun- 

 scorched flats near by the same cheery call of the 

 quail sounded in the ears of the Mexican oxdrivers 

 and muleteers as they carried their cargoes of coffee 

 and cacao to the coast, that I heard from many a field 

 and thicket over thousands of miles of varied country 

 to the north. Among these sturdy little Americans 

 there appeared no sign of degeneration, and it was 

 pleasanter to meet them than some of my countrymen 



