642 



U. S. p. E. E. EXP. AND SUEVEYS — ZOOLOGY — GENBEAL EEPOET. 



and the reddish of the jugulum is paler. The stripe behind the eye has more black ; the feathers 

 on top of the head are black, margined with brownish yellow, instead of being reddish and 

 black. There are distinct transverse bars of dusky in every feather of the upper surface, (except 

 the head,) and in addition there are obscure light brownish yellow spots or bars on the back and 

 wings, the coverts especially, not found in virginianus. This light mottling is, perhaps, more 

 distinct in the female than the male. The light margins to the tertials are brownish white, not 

 brownish yellow. 



OREORTYX, Baird. 



Ch. — Body stout, broad ; bill large ; crest as in Lophortyx ; tail short, broad, scarcely more than half the wing, rounded, the 

 longest feathers not much exceeding the coverts. Legs developed, the claws extending beyond the tip of the tail ; the lateral 

 toes short, the outer claw falling considerably short of the base of the middle. Very similar to Ortyx, except in the crest. 



I do not find any genus already established for this bird, which appears to me worthy of 

 generic rank, and differing in marked characters both from Lophortyx and Callijpepla. I am 

 unable to say whether more than one species can be included in it. 



OREOETYX PIOTUS, Baird. 



Plumed Partridge; Mountain Quail. 



Ortyx picta, Douglas, Trans. Linn. Soc. XVI, 1829, 143. 



Callipepla picta, Gould, Mon. Odont. pi. xv. — Newberry, Rep. P.R.R. VI, iv, 1857, 93. 



Ortyx plumifera, Gould, Pr. Zool. Soc. V, 1837, 42.— Aud. Syn. 1839, 200.— 1b. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 69 ; pi. 291. 



Perdix plumifera, Aud. Cm. Biog. V, 1839, 220 ; pi. 422. 



Lophortyx plumifera, Nuttall, Man. 1, 2d ed. 1840, 791. 



Sp. Ch.— Head with a crest of two straight feathers, much longer than the bill and head. Anterior half of the body grayish 

 plumbeous ; the upper parts generally olivaceous brown with a slight shade of rufous, this extending narrowly along the nape 

 to the crest. Head beneath the eyes and throat orange chestnut, bordered along the orbits and a short distance behind by black, 

 bounded anteriorly and superiorly by white, of which color is a short line behind the eye. Posterior half of the body beneath 

 white, a large central patch anteriorly (bifurcating behind,) with the flanks and tibial feathers orange chestnut brown, the sides 

 of body showing black and white bands, the former color tinged with chestnut. Under tail coverts black, streaked with orange 

 chestnut. Upper tertials margined internally with whitish. 



Length, 10.50 inches ; wing, 5 ; tail, 3.25. 



Hob. — Mountain ranges of California and Oregon towards the coast. 



The forehead is of a whitish ashy, fading into the plumbeous of the head above. The white 

 mark in front of the eye completely encircles the base of the lower jaw, cutting off the chestnut . 



