Gambel's Partridge 395 



dry ground, and eternal sun that he does not pass 

 the crest of the Sierra to the west, although he 

 could certainly thrive there with the valley-quail. 

 The farthest western point at which I have found 

 him was on the Mojave Desert near Dagget, on 

 the meridian of San Bernardino, only twelve miles 

 east of the longitude of San Diego. On this 

 eastern slope of the Sierra he is found through- 

 out a long range, though his greatest numbers 

 are in Arizona and Sonora. 



The same in general color, size, form, and 

 habits as the valley-quail of California, he re- 

 sembles him also in manner of breeding and run- 

 ning into large packs of hundreds and even 

 thousands in the fall. He varies the notes in so 

 many ways that they can hardly be classified, and 

 yet they are so nearly the same that one at once 

 recognizes them. But in the distribution of the 

 colors and especially in the action of the bird, 

 you at once recognize a distinctly different being. 

 The chestnut cap beneath his nodding plume of 

 jet, the island of jet upon his breast, with the 

 broad bands of cinnamon on the sides striped 

 with white, — all these, in contrast with his ashy 

 blue coat, give him an air of something you can- 

 not describe, yet plainly an improvement on the 

 style of his wily cousin of the western coast. In 

 activity and ability to take care of himself under 

 the most adverse conditions, this desert bird is 



