LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



By Charles Bendire, Captain XJ. S. Army {retired). 



GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



Family TETRAONID^. Grouse, Paktridges, etc. 

 I. Colinus virginianus (Linn^us). 



BOB WHITE. 



Tetrao virginianus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, ed. 10, 1, 1758, 161. 

 Colinus virginianus Stejneger, Auk, ii, January 1885, 45. 

 (B 471, C 389, R 480, C 571, U 389.) 



Geographical range : Eastern United States and soutliern Ontario, Canada ; 

 west to eastern Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, and eastern Texas ; 

 south to Georgia, Alabama, and other Gulf States. 

 « 

 This species, one of the most widely distributed of our game birds, is 



better known throughout the Northern and Middle States as the Quail, and 

 under the name of Partridge or Virginia Partridge in the South. It is found 

 everywhere, more or less abundantly in suitable localities within the United 

 States, east of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, excepting in Florida, where 

 it is replaced by the Florida Bob White, and in the northern portions of the 

 New England States. In these, north of Massachusetts, it is rare, but occurs 

 occasionally in the southern portions of Vermont and New Hampshire, and less 

 frequently in Maine. In northern New York it is very rare. West of the Mis- 

 sissippi it occurs in Louisiana, eastern Texas, the eastern part of the Indian 

 Territory, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and the greater portion of Nebraska, 

 where it has advanced beyond tlie central part of the State. 



Mr. W. M. Wolfe, of Kearney, Nebraska, informs me that the Bob Whites 

 are becoming more and more abundant, and are now common as far west as 

 Ogallala. Dr. T. E. Wilcox, surgeon U. S. Army, writes me to the same effect 

 from Fort Niobrara, Nebraska, saying it is steadily advancing westward and 

 is now to be found 30 miles west of this post. It is also gradually advancing 

 northward. 



Mr. W. W. Cooke states that in Minnesota it has followed up the settle- 

 ments, and in the eastern part of the State has reached the line of the Northern 

 26957— Bull. 1 1 I 



