296 The Fowl-like Birds 



which ranges from northwestern Mexico through western Texas to southeastern 

 California and Nevada. It frequents much the same sort of country as does 

 the Scaled Partridge and in many localities is found with it. It is in many 

 places a very abundant species, and is one of the few game birds that has appar- 

 ently increased since the advent of civilization , in fact it is said to have become 

 a nuisance to farmers in the vicinity of the Salt and Gila rivers, Arizona. A 

 subspecies of this, known as the Buff-breasted Partridge (L. g. fulmpectus], 

 has been recently described from southwestern Sonora. It differs mainly from 

 Gambel's Partridge in its generally darker and more intense colors and larger 

 bill. In western Mexico occurs another species, the Elegant Partridge (L. 

 elegans\ which may be known by having the crest pale rufous and the throat 

 white spotted with black ; and in southeastern Mexico are two little species only 

 about seven and a half inches in length, which have been referred to a distinct 

 though very closely related genus (Philortyx]. They have the tail shorter than 

 any of the others just mentioned, and the sexes are similar in plumage, this 

 being much banded with black and white or dusky and whitish. In the Banded 

 Partridge (P. fasciatus] the cheeks, chin, and throat are white and the bill 

 black, while in the Black-faced Partridge (P. personatus} these areas are black 

 and the bill brownish. 



Crested Quails. In various of the Central American states as well as on 

 near-lying islands are the Crested Quails (Eupsychortyx), a genus of some eight 

 or nine handsome little birds with very distinctly crested heads. Of the recently 

 described Margaritan species (E. pallidus} from Margarita Island, Lieutenant 

 Robinson says: "These handsome birds were abundant near the coast, but 

 none were seen in the interior of the island. They ran through the cactus under- 

 growth with indescribable swiftness, and it was a difficult matter to cause them 

 to take wing. The call of the males is identical with that of our common Bob- 

 white, and the call of the scattered members of a covey is also the same." 



Bob-white. Undoubtedly the most abundantly distributed and generally 

 well-known American game bird is the Bob-white, the typical form of which 

 is widely dispersed over the United States east of the Mississippi and Missouri 

 rivers, from the Gulf States to southern New England, Minnesota, Nebraska, 

 and Texas, and is said to be gradually extending its range towarcl the west. It 

 has also been introduced in many places, notably in the vicinity of Denver, 

 Colorado, where I have heard them calling as familiarly as in their eastern home. 

 It is also abundant as an introduced bird in the Great Salt Lake Valley of Utah, 

 near Boise City, Idaho, the Willamette Valley, Oregon, and various islands in 

 Puget Sound and other places, taking kindly to new surroundings provided 

 climate and food are congenial. The genus (Colinus) to which the Bob-white 

 belongs, with its fifteen or more species and subspecies, enjoys a practically 

 unbroken continuity of range, in addition to that above outlined, from Florida 

 along the Gulf States to the Rio Grande, and thence south through eastein Mexico 

 to Tabasco and over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to and down the Pacific coast 

 to the borders of Guatemala. A large series of specimens obtained throughout 

 this range seems to show that many of the forms are only subspecies of the 



