BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 279 



ee. Back decidedly grayish. 



/. Darker, tiie breast mouse gray (northwestern Baja California). 



Lophortyx calif ornica plumbea, 9 (p. 287) 

 //. Paler, the breast grayish drab to light grayish drab. 



g. Back suffused with olive-brownish (southern Baja California). 



Lophortyx califomica achrustera, ? (p. 289) 

 gg. Back with little or no brownish suffusion. 



h. Paler, the sides and flanks buffy brown (Owens Valley, east-cen- 

 tral Cahf ornia) . Lophortyx californica canfiieldae, 9 (p. 290) 

 hh. Darker, the sides and flanks olive-brown (Warner Valley, Oreg.). 

 Lophortyx californica precta, 9 (p. 290) 



lophortyx californica californica (shaw) 



Valley Quail 



Adult male. — Forehead and anterior part of crown back to middle of 

 the eyes pale olive-buff, the feathers with fine dusky shafts and the more 

 posterior ones tipped with white, forming a white line of demarcation 

 across the crown; this followed by a broader blackish one which turns 

 posteriorly at the sides to form the lateral margins of the hindcrown and 

 occiput, which are raw umber; coronal crest of six forward-drooping, 

 terminally expanded black feathers; feathers of hindneck and posterior 

 sides of neck dark brownish gray margined with fuscous to black and 

 subterminally spotted finely with white, giving a finely speckled appear- 

 ance; anterior interscapulars slate-gray with margins, tips, and shaft 

 streaks of fuscous to chaetura drab, the gray often paler subterminally, 

 giving a diluted reflection of the nape pattern; posterior interscapulars, 

 back, lower back, and rump brownish olive; scapulars and upper wing 

 coverts between buffy brown and olive-brown in fresh plumage (fading 

 to more slate-gray in spring), the longer scapulars internally edged with 

 light ochraceous-buff ; secondaries dark olive-brown narrowly edged 

 toward their ends with light ochraceous-buf? ; primaries dark olive-brown ; 

 upper tail coverts like the rump but with a slate-gray tinge; rectrices 

 between slate-gray and deep mouse gray; lores, chin, and throat jet- 

 black, the throat bordered posteriorly by a broad white band beginning 

 at the lower hind end of the eye and continuing between the cheeks and 

 the auriculars to the sides of the throat and across the throat; another 

 white band begins just above it at the hind end of the eye and borders 

 the blackish rim of the crown and occiput ; auriculars and a posterolateral 

 border of the white throat border black; breast solid deep neutral gray 

 with a slate wash; middle of upper abdomen warm buff, sides of upper 

 abdomen white, all the feathers heavily margined with black terminally; 

 a large patch in the center of the abdomen bright hazel, the feathers 

 margined with black ; lower middle of abdomen pale buffy whitish barred 

 with dark olive-brown, the dark bars becoming fainter posteriorly; 

 feathers of sides deep olive-brown with terminal lanceolate white shaft 



