142 Birds of Colorado 
often far from water. In the autumn it forms small 
coveys, probably several families joining together, and 
thus remains till pairing time. 
Along the Arkansas Valley they are rather domestic 
and keep near the farms all the winter, and often nest 
in the gardens or close by. The food consists of about 
30 per cent. insects, chiefly grasshoppers and beetles, 
and 70 per cent. vegetable matter, principally weed-seeds, 
but they undoubtedly eat a certain quantity of plant tips 
and buds as well. 
The nest is placed on the ground and consists merely 
of a slight depression lined with a little grass, but gen- 
erally somewhat concealed by a bush or tuft of grass, 
The eggs, usually eleven or twelve, are thick-shelled, 
somewhat lustreless and sub-pyriform or ovate; they 
are white to pale buff, very finely marked, as a rule, 
with pin-points of reddish brown. I have no nesting 
dates for Colorado, but further south eggs have been 
taken as early as April, and as late as September. 
Genus LOPHORTYX. 
Crown with a crest of several upstanding club-shaped, imbricated 
black feathers at least an inch long, rather smaller in the female; tail 
normally of twelve, sometimes of ten or fourteen, feathers, about + 
the length of the wing. 
Three species and subspecies of this genus are found in the United 
States and Mexico. 
Key oF THE SPECIES. 
A. Lower-breast scale-like ; the edges of the feathers black. 
a. Occiput brown, separated from the whitish forehead by a 
black band. L. californicus, ¢ p. 143. 
b. Occiput and forehead dull brown. L. californicus, 2 p. 143. 
B. Lower-breast buffy-white, with a black patch on the belly. 
L. gambeli, ¢ p. 144, 
C. Lower-breast and belly buffy-white, faintly streaked; no black 
patch. L. gambeli, 2 p. 144, 
