

PLUMED PARTRIDGE. 



II 



I INLIKE its relative the Mountain Partridge, which it 

 closely resembles, this species only approaches the 

 seacoast in the southern parts of its range, but is essen- 

 tially a bird of the drier regions of the interior, and a 

 dweller of the mountains; and the name of " Mountain 

 Partridge " would be much more applicable to it than 

 it is to the one living to the westward of its habitat. It 

 is found on both sides of the Sierra Nevada in eastern 

 Oregon, and southward to northern Lower California. 

 It ascends high upon the mountains, having been met 

 with at an altitude of 7000 feet in the Sierra Nevada, 

 and Bendire found it on Mount Kearsage in Inyo 

 County, California, at an elevation of 10,000 feet. The 

 most easterly point of its range is the Argus Moun- 

 tains in southeastern California, where Dr. Fisher met 

 with it. In winter it descends toward the valleys and 

 passes this inclement season in a milder climate, but 

 on the return of spring travels upward again, often not 

 stopping until the snow line is reached. It is shy like the 

 Mountain Partridge, so called, and like it goes in small 

 coveys, and escapes by running, if possible, rather than 

 trusting to its wings. This is the inveterate habit of all 

 the plumed and crested Partridges, lessening very much 

 the sport of hunting them, very trying to the human, and 

 perfectly exasperating and bewildering to the dog. In 

 spring the male utters a loud clear call, something like 

 Pheu-i-e, Phen-i-e, while mounted upon some stump 

 or rock, and the mating season commences about April. 



44 



