‘ 
144 Birds of Colorado 
work in devouring grass-seeds. It roosts in bushes, 
not on the ground, and is not so good a sporting-bird as 
the Bob-white. 
The nest is a depression, lightly lined with grass, 
and generally sheltered by brushwood or a rock. The 
eggs, 12 to 16 in number, are white or buffy, irregularly 
spotted all over with brown and drab. They average 
1:25 x 10. 
Gambel’s Quail. Lophortyx gambeli. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 294—Colorado Records—Morrison 89, p. 181 
Cooke 97, pp. 70, 202. 
Description.—Male—Front half of crown and crest black, with a few 
white lines on the forehead 3; posterior half chestnut-brown, u white 
transverse line across the crown, another running back from the eye, 
and a third surrounding the black throat ; general colour above ashy- 
blue, with dark shaft-lines to the feathers round the neck ; breast like 
the back; other under-parts buffy, rich chestnut streaked with 
white on the flanks, and a black patch in the middle of the belly ; 
iris brown, bill black. Length 6-5; wing 4-75; tail 3-75; culmen -45 ; 
tarsus 1-15. 
The female has the head plain greyish-brown, au little whiter on the 
chin; the crest is dark brown and not recurved, and the black belly- 
patch is absent, but the lower-breast and belly are faintly streaked 
with brown. 
Distribution. From, Western Texas to southern California north to 
southern Utah and Colorado, south to Sonora in Mexico. 
The claim of Gambel’s Quail to admission to the Colorado list seems 
rather doubtful; Morrison gives it as rare in the south-west part of the 
State, and Cooke in more detail says that Morrison shot three, forty 
miles south-west of Fort Lewis. This would certainly take one well 
over into New Mexico, so that although it most probably occurs within 
the State boundary, it does not appear to have been actually taken. 
Family TETRAONID&A. 
Head fully feathered ; tarsus partially or completely 
feathered and without a spur; hind toe jointed above 
the level of the others; plumage never metallic. 
