THE CALIFORNIAN QUAIL. 31 



the fore part of the head. The plumage of the back 

 of the neck consists of numerous small triangular fea- 

 thers of a slaty hue with a narrow black margin, and 

 for the most part with a whitish tip. Between these 

 and the throat, which is of a full black, passes a 

 crescent-shaped stripe of whitish feathers, ascending 

 from the front of the neck and terminating on each 

 side beneath the eyes. A second and smaller stripe 

 of the same hue passes on either side of the head from 

 above the eyes obliquely backwards. The feathers of 

 the under parts from the breast downwards are of a 

 dull yellowish white with a tinge of brown, broad, and 

 deeply margined with crescents of dusky black. The 

 legs are covered as low as the knees with feathers of 

 a rusty brown. On the sides of the body below the 

 wings the feathers are rather long, and are each of 

 them marked along the middle by a stripe of yellowish 

 white. The bill and legs have an undecided dusky 

 tinge. In size the bird is somewhat larger than the 

 common European Quail, measuring nine or ten inches 

 from the tip of the tail, which is long and rounded, to 

 the extremity of the bill, and standing full eight inches 

 in height to the top of the crest. The female differs 

 chiefly in the smaller size of the feathers fonning the 

 crest, in the want of the whitish crescent which borders 

 the throat of the male, in the browner colour of the 

 throat itself, and in the generally fainter hue and less 

 lively markings of her plumage throughout. 



For the first notice of these beautiful birds we are 

 indebted to the Editor of the Voyage of the unfortunate 

 La Perouse, who gave a figure of them in the Atlas to 

 that work, merely mentioning in the text that they 

 were plentiful in the low woods and plains of Cali- 

 fornia, where they assembled in bands of two or three 

 hundred, and became fat and well flavoured. Pre- 



