30 LIFE HISTOEIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



it is found in southwestern Utah and the Death Valley region of southern 

 Nevada, as well as in parts of northern New Mexico, where Dr. C. J. Newberry, 

 jr., met with it a few miles south of Santa Fe\ South it extends into western 

 Mexico. It is a resident, and breeds wherever found. 1 



In southern Arizona, along the valley of the Gila River, it used to be 

 exceedingly abundant before the day of railroads, and is yet, I presume. In 

 those days Gambel's Partridge was one of the most pleasing sights to the 

 weary traveler over Arizona's hot and dusty plains, where springs and even 

 stagnant water holes were few and far between, and stretches of 50 miles 

 without water were not unusual. The presence of these handsome little game 

 birds always indicated that this much-needed fluid, poor as it often might be, 

 was not far off, and this cheered you, for which reason alone, if for no other, 

 their appearance was doubly welcome. Numerous wells along the principal 

 highways and railroads have changed all this now, and a journey through 

 Arizona to-day has lost about all its terrors, and can be made in compara- 

 tive comfort and even luxury. 



For one of the most exquisite pieces of word painting of Arizona, as it 

 appeared thirty years ago, and at the same time giving an exceedingly interest- 

 ing and accurate account of the life-history of Gambel's Partridge, I refer the 

 reader to an article in the Ibis of January, 1866, entitled "Field Notes on Loph- 

 ortyx gambeli, by Elliott Coues, M. D.," which will not fail to prove attractive 

 to the most critical observer. Concerning the relative abundance of Gambel's 

 Partridge in Arizona at present, Mr. Herbert Brown, of Tucson, writes me as 

 follows: "There is no diminution in their numbers; if anything, they have 

 multiplied in proportion to the extent of increased cultivation. I have been 

 told that some farmers on the Salt and Gila Rivers, about Florence and Phoenix, 

 poisoned them as a nuisance, and in a 'game bill,' introduced in the Arizona 

 legislature in 1885, Partridges had to be stricken out from protection before the 

 bill could pass." 



Wherever water is found Gambel's Partridge is common throughout 

 southern Arizona up to an altitude of 5,000 feet; and in New Mexico, Mr. 

 "W. H. Cobb, of Albuquerque, informs me of meeting with young fledglings 

 in the pine forests at an altitude of 8,000 to 9,000 feet. In 1872 I found 

 this species very abundant near my camp on Rillitto Creek, the present site 

 of Fort Lowell, 7 miles northeast of Tucson. During the winter and early 

 spring coveys of these birds might be seen almost daily, feeding and dusting 

 themselves in the immediate vicinity of my camp, and especially on the 

 wagon roads leading to it. They frequented these mostly in the mornings 

 and occasionally in the evenings, the birds scratching about in the sand and 

 dusting themselves like domestic fowls. They appeared very sociable, and 

 were constantly calling to each other as the scattered covey moved from 



1 Lieut. Robert C. Van Vliet, U. S. Army, tells ine that he tried to introduce this species in the vicinity 

 of Fort Union, New Mexico, liberating fifty of these birds in February, 1884. They all disappeared -within a 

 year. The birds met with by Dr. Newberry, near Santa F6, may have been stragglers or descendants of 

 this lot. 



