OF THE UNITED STATES 215 



as Bob-white; and we next pass to the genus Oreortyx. These are 

 elegant Partridges of great beauty of plumage, there being one 

 species of them and two subspecies, all confined to the western 

 part of the United States. The type of the genus is the moun- 

 tain Partridge (0. pictus), w r hich was described by Douglass in 

 the Transactions of the Linnean Society in 1829. As far as now 

 known, its present geographical distribution includes ~Eh(T " Pa- 

 cific coast region, from San Francisco Bay north to Washing- 

 ton." It has also been introduced on Vancouver Island. 



A paler race of these birds, distinguished as the Plumed Par- 

 tridge (O.pictus plumiferus), occurs upon both slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains, and eastward to the Panamint range, thence 

 to Mount Magruder in Nevada; it is also found south in the coast 

 ranges from San Francisco Bay to Lower California. (Campos.) 

 They are wonderfully handsome birds, more so, I think, than the 

 remaining subspecies of this genus; namely, the San Pedro Par- 

 tridge (O.p.confinus), which, although much like its plumed rela- 

 tive, has a somewhat thicker bill, and is grayer above. So far 

 as at present known, it is a race confined to the San Pedro Moun- 

 tains of Lower California, where it was discovered by A. W. An- 

 thony, and described by him in 1889 in the Proceedings of the 

 California Academy of Sciences. 



Our largest genus of American Partridge is the genus Calli- 

 pepla, containing as it does three species and two subspecies. 

 The Scaled Partridge (C. squamata) is, according to the A. O. U. 

 List, found upon the " tablelands of Mexico, from the valley of 

 Mexico north to central and western Texas." It occurs also 

 about Santa F, New Mexico, and in certain localities in south- 

 ern Arizona. I have seen specimens in the flesh of this bird, shot 

 fifty miles east of Fort Wingate, New Mexico. It is replaced in 

 northeastern Mexico and the lower Eio Grande valley in Texas by 

 the sub-species known as the Chestnut-bellied Scaled Partridge 

 (C. s. castanogastris). A very different-appearing species is the 

 California partridge (C. californica ) , known along the coast re- 

 gion of California, where it occurs as the " Valley " or " Top-knot 

 quail." It is found as far south as Monterey, and it has been suc- 

 cessfully introduced into Oregon, Washington, and British Co- 

 lumbia. Bendire says, " Their favorite haunts are the under- 

 growth and thickets along water courses, brush-covered side 

 hills, and canyons, frequenting the roads, cultivated fields, vine- 

 yards, and edges of clearings to feed. It is a constant resident, 



