SCALED PARTRIDGE; BLUE QUAIL 83 



gather again. Sometimes the birds collect in consid- 

 erable numbers, 60 or 80 having been seen together. 



The breeding season begins in March, and the young 

 birds are usually hatched by the first of June, or earlier. 

 There is some reason to think that two broods are 

 reared. The number of eggs ranges from 9 to 16, and 

 is commonly about n or 12. The eggs are sometimes 

 dead white, or again pale buff in color, and are dotted 

 with very small reddish brown spots scattered over 

 the entire egg. 



The scaled partridge is not a bird pursued for sport. 

 It is true that many of them are killed by gunners, but 

 merely for the food they afford, the birds being potted 

 on the ground at every opportunity. 



Of all the quail, this is the most difficult to make lie 

 to dog or man. In Arizona the army officers used to 

 hunt them on horseback, following up the birds and 

 shooting them whenever and however they could. 



The scaled quail, which is also sometimes called 

 white topknot quail, or cottonhead, does not differ in 

 habits from its relative, the chestnut-bellied scaled 

 partridge. 



Concerning the scaled partridge in southern Arizona, 

 Mr. Herbert Brown, of Tucson, writes me : 



"The blue quail are less common than Gambel's quail, 

 and do not, as a rule, live on the desert proper, but in- 

 cline rather to the higher and rougher foothills. I saw 

 a dog tried on only one, but am inclined to believe in 

 their sprinting qualities. I have shot them in the foot- 

 hills of the Tucson Mountains, west of here, and as far 



