326 PARTRIDGE. 



66.— LOUISIANA QUAIL. 



Perdix Mexicana, Ind. Om. ii. 653. Gerin. iii. t. 247 ? 



Tetrao Mexicanus, Lin. i. 277. Gm. Lin. i. 762. 



Coturnix Ludoviciana, Bris. i. 258. t. 22. 2. Id. 8vo. i. 72. 



Attagen Americanus, Frisch, t. 113. 



Colcuicuiltic, Coturnicis simulacrum, Raii, 158 ? Will. 304. 



Colcuicuiltic, or Quail's Image, Will. Engl. 393. 



Le Colenicui, Buf. ii. 487. PI. enl. 149. 



Louisiana Quail, Gen. Syn. iv. 785. Bartr. Trav. 288 ? 



SIZE of the Common Quail. Bill red ; the head black and 

 chestnut mixed, the feathers being tipped with the last colour; over 

 the eye a stripe of white, which passes behind, and a little way on 

 each side of the neck ; throat white ; hind part of the neck variegated 

 with chestnut, black, and white; upper parts of the body, wings, 

 and rump, chestnut, crossed with undulated black stripes; fore part 

 of the neck to the vent dirty white, crossed with blackish stripes, 

 and a mixture of rufous spots on the neck and sides ; under tail 

 coverts rufous, with paler tips; quills brown, edged with grey, and 

 spotted with rufous outwardly ; the two middle tail feathers chestnut, 

 crossed with minute black stripes ; the rest ash-colour, more or less 

 tipped with the colours of the two middle ones; legs red. 



Inhabits Louisiana, Mexico, &c. — One of these in the Leverian 

 Museum had the tail wholly dusky. Authors seem to have agreed 

 in making the Maryland Partridge and this two distinct species, but 

 I have long suspected that they form but one. In the description 

 of Brisson, of which the above is an abstract, the black streak 

 through the eye is not mentioned, though it passes under the eye, 

 and broadens behind it, in the same manner as in the Maryland 

 Species ; and the only difference is, that this black mark does not 

 surround wholly the chin and throat; though in Brisson's figure 

 there seems a tendency so to do, as some spots are continued ; the 

 black, broad streak seems more manifest in the PL enlum. but this 



