24 QUAILOLOGY - ORNITHOLOGY 



NESTS AND EGGS 



The mating season commences the latter part of February, 

 nesting the iirst week in April. The nest is usually slightly 

 lined with bits of dry grass and leaves, often no lining whatever, 

 but mere hollows in the dry sandy soil, usually under a pile of 

 brush or in a clump of grass. Incubation twenty-one days. 



Eggs ten to twenty-four in number, short ovate in form, 

 resembling the C. californica in color and markings. 



HABITS 



This is the characteristic game bird of Arizona, it in also known 

 as the Arizona Quail. It is essentially a desert bird. Replaced 

 in Texas by the Massena Partridge. W. E. D. Scott found it 

 distributed throughout the entire Catalina region of Arizona 

 below an altitude of 5,000 feet, (je) 



During the hot weather it prefers to remain in the cool spots 

 of the creek bottoms, frequently perching in the trees and read- 

 ily taking to trees at all times. 



MASSENA PARTRIDGE 



Cyrtonyx montezumae ( Vig. ) 



Geog. Dist. — Tablelands of Mexico from the City of Meiico north to 

 Western Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. 



Sp. Char. Male: Upper parts intimately waved with black and reddish- 

 brown and tawny-brown, and marked with sharp buflf or whitish shaft-lines; 

 on the wings the irregular black variegation changing to black bars and 

 round spots, in regular paired series on each feather. Outer quills fuscous, 

 their outer webs spotted with white or buil. Under parts crowded with 

 innumerable round white spots on a dark ground, several pairs on each 

 feather; the middle line of the breast and belly mahogany-colored, the flanks, 

 vent and crissum velvety-black. Top of head black in front, with slight 

 white touches, changing on the crest to brown. Sides of head and throat 

 fantastically striped with black and white; a broad black throat-patch; 

 another on the cheeks; across lores and alongside of crown; a third on the 

 ear-coverts; a fourth bordering the white all around behind. Length about 

 9.00; extent 17.00; wing 4.75; tail 3.00; tarsus 1.20; middle toe and claw 

 1.60; its claw alone 0.50. Female: Upper parts as in the male, but the 

 markings of the wings less regular, more assimilated with the general 

 variegation, and the tone more fulvous. No peculiar marks on head, throat 

 whitish or buflf; general tone of the under parts pale purplish-cinnamon, 

 vfith fine mottling of black and white on each feather. Young Male: Re 

 sembling the hen, but the under parts ochrey or whitish with black variegation. 



jE Davies' Nests & Eggs af North American Birds. 



