436 



GAME-BIRDS, 



neck blue covered with red warts. Like its allies, the common turkey is 

 polygamous, the female only attending to the duties of incubation, while the male, 

 in addition to neglecting such labours, is even reported to destroy the eggs and 

 young chicks. Mr. Brown, writing of these turkeys, observes, that " I am of the 

 belief that they raise two broods of young in a season, as I have seen almost all 

 sizes in the masting-season (October), when they congregate in large numbers in 

 the canons to feed on a small bitter acorn, common to the canons and parks of 

 Southern Arizona and southward. I have seen their roosting-places at night, in 

 sycamore trees ; I also saw one in an oak-grove on the side of a hill, but they 

 appear more to favour the canons." 



Distino-uished from their Old World allies by the tooth-like 

 Paxtridges processes on the edge of the lower mandible, these birds constitute a 

 and Quaus. separate subfamily(0cZcm<op/iori7ia?), represented by eleven genera,con- 



taining nearly fifty species; the 

 largest form being about the size 

 of the common partridge, while 

 the smallest is inferior in size to 

 the migratory quail. In the 

 majority of this group the bill is 

 stout and grouse -like, and most 

 have a longer or shorter crest. 

 Of the three large partridges 

 {Dendrortyx) inhabiting Central 

 America, from Southern Mexico 

 to Costa Rica, little need be said. 

 They are rather handsome birds 

 (especially D, nnacrurus), with 

 tails as long as the wing, or 

 nearly so. The scaled partridges 

 (Gallipepla) are easily recognised 

 by their short crests, and grey 

 and black -margined plumage, 

 producing a beautiful scaled ap- 

 pearance. They are met with in 

 the south-western United States 

 and Mexico. Specially attrac- 

 tive is the mountain -partridge 

 (Oreortyx pictus) from the West- 

 ern States of North America, with 

 the crest composed of two very 

 long black feathers; the head, 

 neck, mantle, and breast being 

 grey ; the rest of the upper-parts 

 olive-brown; the throat and fore-part of the neck deep chestnut margined with white ; 

 and the sides and flanks similarly coloured, but irregularly barred with black and 

 white. One of the handsomest and most familiar members of the group is the 



CALIFOUNIAN QUAIL. 



