QUAILOLOGY - ORNITHOLOGY 13 



FLORIDA BOB WHITE 



Colinus virginianus floridanus ( CoUES. ) 

 Geog. Diet.— Florida. 



Sp. Char. "Rather smaller, the male about the size of the f emale C. vir- 

 ginianus, but bill relatively larger, and jet black; colors darker, all the 

 black markings heavier, those of the under parts nearly as broad as the 

 intervening white spaces, (f) 



NESTS AND EGGS 



General nesting habits and peculiarities the same as the C. 

 VIRGINIANUS, eggs slightly smaller. The nesting season com- 

 mences about a month earlier and the complement is less in num- 

 ber, averaging 11 to 13. 



HABITS 



Generally the same as the C. virginunus. The mating season 

 commencing about a month earlier. 



Very tame and confiding and when not molested prefer to live 

 near the habitation of man, probably owing to their greater se- 

 curity from attacks of beasts and birds of prey. 



They prefer an open woods grown up with saw-palmetto, low 

 bushes, or fields with woods near them and are particularly fond 

 of slovenly cultivated fields, grown up to bushes and weeds along 

 the borders. 



Their food consists of insects, seeds dnd cabbage-palm berries. 



TEXAN BOB WHITE 



Colinus virginianus texanus ( Lawr. ) 

 Geog. Dist. — Texas and North-Eastem Mexico, north to Western Kansas. 



Sp. Coab, "General appearance that of C. virginianus. Chin, throat, 

 fore-head and strip over the eye white. Stripe behind the eye, continuous 

 with a collar across the lower part of the throat, black. Under parts white, 

 with zigzag transverse bars of black. Above, pale brownish red, strongly 

 tinged with ash, the feathers all faintly though distinctly mottled with 

 black; the lower back, scapulars and tertials much blotched with black, the 

 latter edged on both sides and to some extent transyersely barred with 

 brownish white. Secondaries with transverse bars of the same on the outer 

 web. Wing covets coarsely and conspicuously barred with blackish. Lower 

 part of neck ( except before ) streaked with black and white. 



"Female with the white of the head changed to brownish yellow; the 

 black of the head wanting." * 



* Goss' Birds of Kansas. 



t Coues Key to North American Birds. 



